SUNITA RANI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There were two obstacles the petitioner was faced with, which denied her appointment on merit as a Hindi teacher in a process of direct recruitment initiated by the Education Department, Punjab.

(2.) Insofar as the first obstacle is concerned, the State is prepared at the hearing to concede that the experience certificate furnished by the petitioner should hold good towards calculation of marks as per criteria and merely because it was not counter-signed by the District Education Officer furnishes no valid reason to deprive her of the marks assigned for experience. Furthermore, a candidate, namely, one Ms. Maninder Kaur has been selected and appointed by counting her experience earned in the same school in which the petitioner taught, which experience certificate is also not countersigned by the District Education Officer. Here lies unreasonable discrimination. Nevertheless, both the experience certificates, i.e., of the petitioner and Ms. Maninder Kaur were affirmed/signed by the authorize person in the Punjab School Education Board to which the school- Bhagat Puran Singh Memorial Senior Secondary School, Rajewal (Rohno) District Ludhiana is affiliated.

(3.) With the removal of this impediment, two marks would have to be added to the grand total of marks. When done, even then she would not make the grade on merit since her score would still be lower than the marks secured by the last candidate selected and appointed.