STATE OF RAJASTHAN Vs. VASUMATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed under Section 18, Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949 against the order of the learned Single Judge dated March 14, 1990 by which he has allowed the writ petition of the petitioner-respondent and directed the appellants to consider the case of the petitioner for appointment on the post of Surveyor. The facts of the case giving rise to this appeal may be summarised thus.

(2.) Sri Ramanand Saraswat was Senior Research Assistant in the Oriental Research Institute, Government of Rajasthan, Jodhpur and he died in the year 1981 while in service. The petitioner was his youngest daughter. Immediately after his death, she applied for a suitable post under the Rajasthan Recruitment of Dependants of Government Servants (Dying while in Service) Rules, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules'). At that time, she had passed B.A. On August 19, 1981, she was appointed on the post of Preservation Assistant. In the year 1983, she did M.A. in History. Thereafter, she claimed that she should be appointed on the post of Surveyor as her father was a Gazetted Officer. Despite several representations, she was not appointed on the post of Surveyor, She then filed a writ petition. The respondent-appellants averred in their reply that the petitioner was not possessing the requisite qualification for being appointed as a Surveyor as she did not have Hindi or History or Persian or Arabic as one of her optional subjects in the Three Years Degree Course and she was also not having two years experience in literary or historical research or literary work dealing with manuscripts or old documents. The amendments made in Rule 5 of the Rules are prospective in nature. Under the Amendment Rules also, she is not entitled to get appointment on the post of Surveyor. Writ petition has been filed after about 9 years of her said appointment. She had appeared before the Selection Committee held for selecting a suitable candidate for the post of Surveyor and was not found suitable. After having accepted the appointment on the post of Preservation Assistant, she cannot claim the higher post of Surveyor.

(3.) After hearing the learned Counsel for the parties, the learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition by his impugned order holding that the petitioner did not possess the requisite qualification for the post of Surveyor when she applied for appointment on a suitable post after the death of her father in the year 1981, but after passing M.A. in History in 1983, she became eligible for the post of Surveyor under the Amended Rules, relying upon Vivek Goswami v. State of Rajasthan,1989 1 RLR 620 (D.B.).