SHANTI DEVI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of the aforesaid writ petitions as similar questions of law and facts are involved therein.

(2.) By way of these writ petitions, petitioners have challenged the termination of their engagement as Anganwari workers after they had put in between 3-7 years. The ground taken for termination of their engagement was that the Board from which they had passed their matriculation examination i.e. Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi, was not recognized by the Council of the Board of Schools Education or by the Ministry of Human Resources Development. It was, however, admitted that at one stage, the Board from which the petitioners had passed their matriculation had been included in the list being equivalent to the matriculation education. The case of the petitioners is that they had no knowledge that the Board from which they had got the matriculation degree was not recognized and at the time of their appointment all their original certificates were checked by the Selection Committee and there was no allegation of any mala fide against the petitioners.

(3.) Learned Assistant Advocate General has accepted all these facts but has raised two objections. As per her, a person who does not possess the essential qualification, cannot raise a claim since the engagement was void ab initio. Her second objection is that the Anganwari helper's post is not even a post under the State Government and engagement of the petitioners as such, would not qualify as public appointment and consequently, no relief can be granted to the petitioners.