MAMTA DEVI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the present writ petition, the petitioner has put to challenge the validity of clause 7(xix) of Appendix B to Rule 5 of the Punjab Industrial Training (Class-III) Technical Service Rules, 2001, which relates to the educational qualification for the appointment to the post of Instructor Art and Craft trade and sought the relief for consideration of her claim.

(2.) The Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training, Punjab-respondent No. 2 issued an advertisement dtd. 1/3/2013 for inviting applications for filing up 216 posts of Craft Instructors in various trades. As per the advertisement, it was essential to have acquired five years diploma in Painting/Commercial Arts qualification from government recognized institution with practical experience of one year or one year teaching experience. The petitioner is possessed with three years diploma in Commercial Arts, Masters in Political Science and B.Ed. Being eligible, petitioner applied for the trade of Instructor-Arts and Crafts for which 13 posts were advertised out of which two posts were reserved for Backward Class category. After scrutiny of the documents, petitioner was issued the roll number for written examination. The petitioner appeared and was placed at Sr. No. 3 in the merit list with 48 marks. The candidates three times of the advertised posts in each trade, were called for verification of the documents on 4/10/2013 whereas the petitioner was declared ineligible as having not fulfilled the education qualification.

(3.) To the surprise of the petitioner, vide public notice issued by respondent No. 2, the candidates below in merit were called for verification of the documents for the unfilled trades whereas the petitioner, who was eligible and qualified, was declared ineligible because the requirement was five years diploma in Commercial Arts. The petitioner sought information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 from the various universities and also from Technical Board, Punjab regarding the courses being conducted for five year diploma in Commercial Arts. As per the information received by the petitioner through RTI, five years diploma in Commercial Arts was never started and is not being conducted by any university of the Technical Board. Hence, the present writ petition.