MANVEEN BENIPAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, who was a candidate for the post of Social Studies Mistress, is before this court impugning the action of the respondents, whereby she has been declared ineligible for the post. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that advertisement was issued on 7.5.2011 inviting applications for 3,442 posts of Master/Mistress, out of which 899 posts were meant for Social Studies Master/Mistress. The applications were to be submitted on -line upto 30.5.2011. The educational qualifications required were degree in B.A. with two specified subjects in all three years and B.Ed. The conditions also provided that the candidate should have passed Teacher Eligibility Test as per the guidelines issued by National Council for Teacher Education under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 (for short, 'the Act'). The petitioner submitted her application on 20.5.2011 specifically mentioning that she has already appeared in B.Ed. Examination. As Teacher Eligibility Test was not held in the State of Punjab for quite some time, the advertisement in question was challenged in this court by filing C.W.P. No. 21301 of 2011 -Gurjinder Singh v. State of Punjab and others claiming that the test was being conducted for the first time on 3.7.2011, hence, some modification in the cut -off date was required. The writ petition was disposed of on 13.2.2012 with a direction to the competent authority to consider the matter and take a decision as the requirement of passing of Teacher Eligibility Test before 30.5.2011, when to itself was conducted for the first time on 3.7.2011, had created an anomalous situation. In pursuance to the aforesaid direction, fresh public notice was issued in the newspaper on 24.7.2012 specifying that the candidates who had not applied upto the last date, i.e., 30.5.2011, may apply again upto 1.8.2012. Thereafter, the provisional merit list for the post of Social Studies Mistress was uploaded on the website where the name of the petitioner figured at Sr. No. 777 with remarks "not eligible" due to passing of B.Ed. after 30.5.2011. As Teacher Eligibility Test was conducted for the first time in the State of Punjab on 3.7.2011, the petitioner had qualified the same.

(2.) LEARNED counsel further submitted that once the last date for submission of application was extended upto 1.8.2012, that would mean all the eligibility conditions stood extended upto that date. As the petitioner had qualified her B.Ed. examination on 5.7.2011, she should have been considered eligible as the same was before the extended cut -off date, namely, 1.8.2012. The action of the respondents in rejecting her candidature on the ground that she had passed her B.Ed. examination after the cut -off date is totally illegal and arbitrary.

(3.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties and perused the paper book.