CHANDAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF J&K AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition, the petitioner has, inter alia, sought a writ of Certiorarifor quashing Notification No. 02 of 2016 dated 10.10.2016 issued by respondent No.3, whereby 35 candidates were shortlisted for viva voce for filling up 07 posts of Class-IV in the Open Merit Category. The petitioner has further prayed for a direction to respondent Nos. 2 & 3 to conduct his interview under Ex-servicemen category and recommend him for appointment to the post of Class-IV (Health and Family Welfare Department), District Cadre, Kathua.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts leading to the filing of this petition, as narrated in this petition, are that petitioner is 10th pass and an Ex-servicemen having retired from Indian Army with effect from 31.10.2011. The respondent No.2 vide his Advertisement Notice No. 01 of 2015 dated 31.03.2015 invited applications to fill up 13 posts of Class-IV in the department of Health and Family Welfare in the District Cadre, Kathua with following break up:-

(3.) As per the Advertisement Notification, the minimum qualification prescribed was matriculation. The petitioner being eligible and entitled to the benefit of horizontal reservation to the extent of 6% of the total posts submitted his candidature for consideration against the General Category post. After proper scrutiny of the applications received by respondent No.3, shortlist was issued by the respondent No.3 vide his Notification No. 01 of 2016-17 published in "Daily Excelsior" newspaper on 10.08.2016. In the aforesaid Notification, the criteria of shortlisting was also indicated. It was also provided that list of shortlisted candidates indicated in the Annexure-A of the Notification was purely provisional and subject to objections from the aggrieved candidates. As is apparent from the shortlist, there was no separate shortlist prepared for Ex-servicemen candidates though shortlist was prepared separately for other categories. The petitioner, however, did not file any objections to the shortlisting within the period of 14 days as stipulated in the Notice No. 01 of 2016-17 on the ground that he had taken ill and had been advised complete bed rest for four weeks w.e.f. 08.08.2016. The petitioner, however, claims that he approached the respondent No.2 with his objections/representation but the same was not entertained on the pretext that 14 days period prescribed in the Notification had expired. It is claimed that when his representation was not entertained by respondent No.3, the petitioner approached him through the Zila Sainik Welfare Officer, Kathua.The Zila Sainik Welfare Officer, Kathua vide his Communication No. E-4/ZSWO/Kth/14/1129-31 dated 06.09.2016 took up the matter with the respondent No.3 and requested him to clarify the position as to why the eligible Ex-servicemen who had applied for the post were not shortlisted despite there being 6% horizontal reservation provided for the aforesaid category. It is the further case of the petitioner that in response to the communication of the Zila Sainik Welfare Officer, Kathua, respondent No.4 vide its communication No. DCK/Adm/2016-17/1599 dated 07.10.2016 informed the Zila Sainik Welfare Officer that in the Advertisement Notification No. 01 of 2015 issued by the respondent No.2, there was no post reserved for Ex-servicemenand therefore, no shortlisting for the aforesaid category was resorted to by the respondent No.3.