AMIR AHMAD Vs. THE STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is working as a Cane Development Inspector, challenges the appointment of Respondent No. 3 as Cane Marketing Officer. A few facts may be noticed.

(2.) On March 16, 1992, the Patwal Co-op. Sugar Mills Ltd. advertised a post of Cane Marketing Officer. The minimum qualifications prescribed for the post were B.Sc. Agriculture with 5 years experience as Cane Marketing Inspector. Admittedly, the respondent had been appointed as Cane Development Inspector on February 20, 1990. The petitioner avers that neither on the date of the submission of the application nor at the time of appointment vide order dated March 28, 1992 (Annexure P-7) the respondent possessed the requisite experience of five years. The respondents on the other hand have pointed out that Mr. Rajinder Singh (Respondent No. 3) had been appointed as Cane Supervisor on February 27, 1986 and as such he had about six years of experience at the time of his appointment in the year 1992. It has been further averred that the duties of the post of Cane Supervisor were "almost identical to that of Cane Development Inspector." The petitioner contests this and has filed a replication to state that. "Cane Supervisor is subordinate to Cane Development Inspector." He has further averred that "Cane Supervisor is promoted to the post of Cane Development Inspector." The respondents have not controverted these averments by filing any rejoinder.

(3.) Counsel for the parties have been heard. It is the admitted position that only a person possessing the qualification of B.Sc. Agriculture with five years experience as Cane Marketing Inspector would be eligible for appointment to the post of Cane Marketing Officer. The advertisement makes no provision for relaxation of the qualification Consequently, these have to be strictly adhered to. It has also not been provided in the advertisement that experience on the post of Cane Supervisor or any other post could be taken into consideration. In this situation, it is only a person who possessed the requisite experience of five years as Cane Marketing Inspector, could be appointed to the post of Cane Marketing Officer.