LALIT DAVE Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HAVING faced the selection process, having been denied the appointment to the post of Rural Nursing Grade II, the petitioners, in all these writ petitions, have approached this Court. Since all these writ petitions challenge the merit list dated 8 -8 -2009, they are being decided by this common judgment.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that on 18 -7 -2008, the Director, Medical & Health Services issued an advertisement for the post of Rural Nursing Grade II. According to the advertisement there were 1757 posts. Moreover, according to the advertisement, the selection was to be made on the basis of merit/ interview. The selections were to be made in accordance with Rajasthan Medical & Health Subordinate Services Rules, 2008 (for short 'Rules, 2008'). Since the petitioners possessed the requisite qualification, they applied for the said post. The petitioners were called for interview, which were conducted from 3 -7 -2009 to 2 -8 -2009. On 8 -8 -2009, the merit list was published. However, the petitioners were shocked to learn that they have not been selected for the said post. Hence, they rushed to this Court.

(3.) MR . Tanveer Ahmad, Mr. S.S. Hasan and other learned Counsel for the petitioners have vehemently contended that the appointment cannot be made solely on the basis of interview. In order to buttress this argument, the learned Counsel have relied upon Ajay Hasia v. Khalid Mujib Sehravardi and Ors., ( : AIR 1981 SC 487), and St. Stephen's College v. the University of Delhi, AIR 1992 SC 1639. According to the petitioners for 1757 vacancies all the applicants were invited for interview. Every day about 700 candidates were interviewed. Thus, the interview could not have lasted for more than a minute or two. Hence, the entire interview process was more illusionary than substantive in nature. The petitioners could challenge the selection only after having undergone the process, and not before hand. Secondly, as there are glaring mistakes made in the merit list, for example, the cut of point is no where indicated in the merit list, marks obtained by each candidate is not indicated in the said list, members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe have not been selected, therefore, the selection process could be challenged only after it has been completed.