SAMIR KUMAR BISWAL Vs. CHIEF GENERAL MANAGER MAHANADI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the writ petitioners raised substantially similar issues of fact and law and as such all the writ petitions are heard analogously and a common judgment is passed thereon.

(2.) THE common case of all the petitioners numbering 49 is that the Management of the Mahanadi Coalfields sent requisition to the Employment Exchanges in the state to sponsor the names of candidates having requisite qualifications to fill up 38 posts of Mazdoor category -I (I.T.I). Accordingly, names of 664 candidates were sponsored. The petitioners along with many others submitted their bio datas to opp. party No. 1 and after due scrutiny 316 candidates were allowed to appear in the written test held on 29.10.1995, out of whom 287 candidates including the petitioners were called upon to appear the Trade Test. Accordingly they appeared in the Trade Test in different batches during the period 26.12.1995 to 6.1.1996. A merit list comprising 226 I.T.I. candidates who were found suitable in all respects was prepared, out of which only 24 candidates were given appointment. Subsequently, 84 posts were sanctioned. Opp. party No. 1 gave appointment to 51 candidates exclusively those who had taken Apprenticeship Training in the Mahanadi Coalfields, out of the aforesaid merit list. So, the petitioners met the opp. parties, submitted memorandums and staged Dharana in front of the Office of opp. party No. 1 and when nothing cut ice, they preferred the aforesaid writ petitions with prayer to direct the opp. parties to appoint them as Mazdoor Category -I (ITI).

(3.) FROM the pleadings of the parties, it is clear that a selection list comprising 226 candidates was prepared. Out of 38 vacancies, 24 vacancies were filled up out of the candidates in the selection list. Subsequently 84 posts of Mazdoor Category -I (I.T.I) were sanctioned. Basing on the decision in U.P. State Road Transport Corporation '(supra), 51 candidates exclusively those who had taken apprenticeship training from Mahanadi Coalfields, were given appointment out of the selection list, ignoring some more meritorious candidates who had taken such training from other institutes.