MOHINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ of certiorari for quashing the decision taken by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (for short, "the Commission"), to short -list the candidates for the posts of Lecturers in Economics (School Cadre) by excluding certain qualifications from the criteria dated 12.6.1997.

(2.) THE facts of the case are that the petitioner is a Backward Class of Haryana being Bairagi by caste. He possesses the qualifications of Matric, B.A., M.A. and B.Ed. He is also said to be a sportsman and has taken part in the event of Volleyball in Inter - University Championship held in 1986 -87. He applied for recruitment as Lecturer in Economics in pursuance of advertisement No. 6 of 1997 (published in The Tribune dated 22.12.1997) issued by the Commission for recruitment of 691 Lecturers (School Cadre). He has invoked jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for quashing the mechanism adopted by the Commission for short -listing the candidates to be called for selection on the ground that it is contrary to the decision taken by the Subordinate Services Selection Board, Haryana (predecessor of the Commission) (for short, "the Board") in its meeting held on 12.6.1997. He has averred that if the criteria framed by the Board had been followed for short -listing the candidates, then he would have crossed the cutoff marks i.e. 33 fixed by the Commission for calling the candidates for final selection.

(3.) DURING the course of arguments, we enquired from the learned counsel for the petitioner as to what are the petitioner's qualifications other than the academic and professional ones. In reply, she invited our attention to the certificates Annexures P -6/I and P -6/II issued by Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak and submitted that if the marks had been allocated in lieu of the sports achievement of the petitioner, his name would have been included in the list of candidates, who were found eligible for being called for selection,