VIJANT SINGH CHANDAIL Vs. STATE OF J&K &ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts of the matter involved in these five clubbed writ petitions are somewhat intertwined. I shall first give a brief resume of the background and then narrate the facts attendant to each of these writ partitions. The core issue involved would be culled out thereafter.

(2.) Way back in the year 2000, a post of Lecturer in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category in the discipline of Medicine is stated to have been available in the Health and Medical Education Department of the State. The said post is stated to have been utilized and filled up by a general category candidate. Dr.Shoket M. Chowdry, the private respondent in first three of the present five writ petitionsand the petitioner in the two of the last of them (hereinafter, for brevity and convenience, referred to s the private respondent), had got admission to MD Course in Medicine at PGI Chandigarh in January, 2000. He states to have undergone the MD course from January 2000 to December 2002. Obviously, therefore, any attempt on the part oron behalf of the private respondent to derive any advantage from such action of the Government or claim deprivation on that count would naturally be untenable and inconsequential as, according to his own stand, he became eligible for the post of Lecturer in the year 2005. Thereafter, one more Lecturer's post of the ST reserved category in the department of Medicine became available in Medical College, Jammu. It was referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (for short, the PSC) for selection of a suitable candidate under general category. The PSC advertised the post by notification no.07-PSC of 2007 dated 04.07.2007.

(3.) The private respondent, Dr.Dr.Shoket M. Chowdry,challenged the aforesaid notification in writ petition, SWP no.1372/2007. On 14.08.2007, the learned Writ Court passed an interim direction therein directing the PSC to accept his application form for the post and to allow him to participate in the selection process, but the result be not declared till the disposal of the writ petition. Subsequently, on 12.12.2007, the learned Writ Court disposed of the writ petition at the instance of the private respondent, quashing the advertisement notification no.07/2007 dated 04.07.2007 qua the post of Lecturer in the stream of Medicine,with direction to the PSC to issue fresh advertisement notification within fifteen days from the date of receipt of the copy of that order, treating the vacancy reserved for ST category. However, such fresh advertisement notification was not issued, at least, within the time stipulated by the Court.