NAGENDRA SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petition has been filed by the petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution, seeking direction against the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner under the 5% quota of vacancies for the post of Junior Engineer -I/II, earmarked for special selection by way of Limited Departmental Competitive Examination from amongst the departmental technical employees having requisite qualification, and further seeking direction to the effect that the action of the respondents including the 5% vacancies earmarked for special selection, by way of filling those vacancies by direct recruitment be quashed and set aside.

(2.) IT is submitted by the learned counsel Mr. Abhishek Sharma for the petitioner that the petitioner was appointed as Helper I on compassionate ground, and thereafter during the service, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Branch) from the University of Rajasthan. According to him, earlier the respondents had provided for the quota of 5% of vacancies for the post of Junior Engineers I /II to the Department Employees possessing the requisite qualification, however the respondents have now included the said quota for the vacancies to be filled up by direct recruitment. He further submitted that though the decision has been taken by the respondents to fill up the said post by direct recruitment, no decision for withdrawing 5% quota for departmental employees has been taken. Relying upon the information provided by the respondents under the Right to Information Act, Mr. Sharma submitted that though as many as 9 vacancies for the earlier years are to be filled up from the special quota for departmental employees, the respondents are not filling up the same from departmental candidates.

(3.) HOWEVER , the learned counsels Mr. B.L. Saini and Mr. Ajay Gupta for the respondent Nos.2 and 3 have submitted that as per the decision taken by the Board of Directors - Annexure -R/1, the post of Junior Engineer -I has to be filled up 100% by direct recruitment from open market through written competitive examination and there is no special quota provided for the departmental candidates as claimed by the petitioner. He also submitted that at present all the vacancies have been filled up by way of direct recruitment and even otherwise the petitioner had not applied for the said post, and therefore, has no right to be appointed as such.