PUSHPA Vs. H.P.PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common judgment and order, we dispose of five Writ Petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and registered as Civil Writ Petitions No. 1784, 1785, 2007, 2026 and 2036 of 1995.

(2.) The Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission issued an advertisement calling for applications for the posts of Lecturer (College Cadre) Class I. The said advertisement is available at Annexure P -I to the Writ Petition No. 2036/95. In the advertisement, eligibility for Lecturership was also incorporated, which runs as follows: "The candidates who have already qualified the National Eligibility Test for Lecturership of U G. C. and are also otherwise qualified, will be directly called for interview. The remaining applicants, who have not qualified the N. E T of U. G. C. bat possess the other prescribed qualifications, will be subjected to a written objective test and only those of them who qualify the said test in the concerned subject will be called for viva voce test alongwith those who have already qualified the U. G. C.s N. E T. The qualifying standard for the written test will be decided by the Commission in its discretion."

(3.) Subsequently, in accordance with the direction of the University Grants Commission, Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission issued a corrigendum to the advertisement at Annexure P -l notifying that the candidates who have been awarded Ph. D Degrees or submitted that Ph. D thesis upto 31 -12 -1993 and the candidates who have done M Phil upto 31 -12 -1992 were exempted from the National Eligibility Test for the Lecturership. The said advertisement is available at Annexure P~9 to the writ petition registered as C. W. P, No. 1784/95. Subsequently, another Notification was issued by the Public Service Commission (respondent) that if after the conduct of tests for eligibility for lecturership by the Commission, the number of eligible candidates vis -a -vis the number of vacancies in the subject(s) concerned are inordinately large, the Commission may, at its own discretion, short list the number of candidates to be called for viva voce test by subjecting all the eligible (Ph. Ds, M. Phils and N. E T. or equivalent tests qualified) to written screening test(s).