RAJOOL GOYAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a Law Graduate. He is orthopedically physically handicapped. In pursuance of the advertisement dated 20.01.2015 (Annexure P -1) issued by the Punjab Public Service Commission, he applied for the Punjab Civil Service (Judicial Branch) Examination 2014 -15 under the category of Physically Handicapped (Orthopedically Challenged) for recruitment to the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) -Cum -Judicial Magistrate. As per the advertisement, candidates equal to 10 times the number of vacancies advertised, selected in order of their merit in the respective categories in preliminary examination were to be held eligible to sit in the Main Examination, subject to securing minimum 150 marks for general category candidates and minimum 100 marks out of 500 for all reserved category candidates. The petitioner appeared in the Preliminary examination in the category of Physically Handicapped (Orthopedically Challenged), and secured 172 marks. In that category, first 10 candidates in order of merit were declared to have qualified for appearance in the Main Examination, because one seat was reserved in that category. Two seats were reserved for the category of Visually Impaired and one seat was reserved for Hearing Impaired category. However, one candidate was declared to have qualified for Main Examination in the category of Hearing Impaired and no candidate could qualify in the category of Visually Impaired. The petitioner has filed this petition seeking direction to the respondents that when four posts were reserved under the category of "Physically Handicapped, Punjab", which were further bifurcated in three sub -categories, i.e. two for Visually Impaired; one for Hearing Impaired; and one for Orthopedically Challenged persons, first 40 candidates in order of their merit under the category of "Physically Handicapped, Punjab" being 10 times the number of vacancies advertised, should have been called for Main Examination, irrespective of the sub -category under which they fall. Therefore, the petitioner who figured within first 40 candidates in order of merit under the category of "Physically Handicapped, Punjab" should be declared to have qualified the Preliminary Examination for appearance in the Main Examination.

(2.) In the written statement filed on behalf of respondent No. 3, the claim of the petitioner has been contested. It has been stated that in the advertisement dated 20.01.2015 (Annexure P -1), reservation under the category of "Physically Handicapped, Punjab" was made as under:

(3.) We have heard learned counsel for the parties.