SANJAY KUMAR SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two writ petitions bring to this Court two orders of the Centrai Administrative Tribunal, Patna Bench that suffer from an apparent inconsistency. The matter relates to appointment of Extra Departmental Brach Post Master (EDBPM), prior to August, 1998. At that time it was not open to the candidates to apply directly and applications for appointment could only be routed through the local employment exchange. The recruitment procedure commenced with the postal authorities asking the local employment exchange for names of suitable candidates. The requisition stipulated that the list of names should reach the postal authorities by registered post within thirty days of the issuance of the letter.

(2.) IN some cases, as in the two in hand, the employment exchange fixed a deadline for submission of applications to it a few days ahead of the last date for the receipt of the applications before the postal authorities. In both cases, a few candidates submitted their applications before the employment exchange beyond the last date fixed by it but before the expiry of the 30 days period stipulated in the requisition by the postal authorities. Consequently, the employment exchange either did not send their names or sent their names so as to reach the postal authorities after the expiry of the 30 days period. As a result, those candidates were not considered by the postal authorities for appointment and selection was made from among the candidates whose names had reached the postal authorities within the 30 days period. The candidates thus excluded from consideration challenged the actions of the employment exchange/postal authorities in excluding them from consideration and the selection and appointment of the respective candidates in the two cases.

(3.) C .W.J.C. No. 6601 of 2005 is the case in which at the instance of the excluded candidate, the Tribunal interfered with the selection made by the postal authorities and set aside the appointment of the selected candidate. The facts of the case may briefly be stated thus.