ABHISHEK SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have preferred the present writ petition for directing the respondents to stay the operation of recruitment process published under notification dated 18.09.2017, issued for the selection to be made on the post of Gramin Dak Sevaks till the respondents give opportunity to the petitioners to fill up the on line forms, who have passed matriculate / 10th examination from the Bihar Sanskrict Shiksha Board (hereinafter referred to as the 'B.S.B.B.'), Patna and to quash the notification / advertisement which is based on serious discrimination.

(2.) The short facts of the case are that on line applications for appointment to the post of Gramin Dak Sevaks, Bihar Circle in the present case, were invited vide notification dated 18.09.2017 and the minimum prescribed educational qualification was that the candidates should have passed 10th standard from approved State Boards by the respective State Governments / Central Government, State wise list whereof, of the approved Boards was annexed as Annexure-A to the said notification. Annexure-A of the said notification dated 18.09.2017, though mentions the Bihar School Examination Board, Patna as an approved Board, however, the B.S.S.B., Patna is not one of such approved Board, hence the petitioners herein could not apply in the said recruitment process since they were possessing 10th pass certificate from the B.S.S.B., Patna.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the B.S.S.B., Patna has been granted membership by the council of Boards of School Education in India, Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the "C.O.B.S.E.") and the C.O.B.S.E. has certified vide its letter dated 05.10.2012 that the Madhyma certificates issued by the B.S.S.B., Patna would have equivalence to secondary (Matriculation) certificates of other member Boards across the country. It is submitted that the respondents cannot discriminate amongst two Boards i.e. while it is recognizing the Bihar School Examination Board, it has failed to recognize the B.S.S.B., Patna as an approved Board, thus the same amounts to violation of the provisions contained in Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India. The learned counsel for the petitioners has also relied on the unreported judgment dated 04.12.2017 passed by the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court in Writ-(A) No. 57732 of 2017 in the case of Ajay Kumar Sharma and another vs. Union of India and Others wherein the Chief Postmaster General, U.P. Postal Circle at Lucknow had been directed to upload the software showing that the candidates having passed Purva, Madhyma are also eligible for the purposes of applying to the post of Gramin Dak Sevak, on the basis that the Purva, Madhyma certificate issued by the U.P. Board of Sanskrit Education at Lucknow has been notified by the Ministry of H.R.D., Government of India by its notification dated 202.2010 to be equivalent to Class-10.