HOME GUARD SAMANVAYA SAMITI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is before this Court seeking a direction to the respondents to permit him to change his category from OBC to OBC (Sportsman) in his application form and thereafter consider his candidature based on his merit. Respondent No.3 - Rajasthan Staff Selection Board issued an advertisement dtd. 16/12/2022 (Annex.1), inviting applications for the post of Upper Primary School Teacher (General/Special Education) Level II, Class VI to VIII. It was stated that 2% of the vacancies were reserved for outstanding sports persons.

(2.) The petitioner submitted his online application as OBC (NCL), but due to an error by the e-Mitra operator, the column for "Outstanding Sports Person" was filled with "No" instead of "Yes". The petitioner was unaware of the mistake in the application form and would have requested a correction had he known. He holds a certificate of participation in the 37th National Senior Kyorugi and 10th National Poomsae Taekwondo Championship, 2018, where he competed in the Rajasthan State Team. On 29/5/2023, while checking for his wife's examination result, the petitioner discovered the mistake. He then approached respondent No.3 on 2/6/2023, requesting correction of his category from OBC to OBC (Sportsman), but to no avail. Hence, this writ petition.

(3.) The stand taken by respondent No.3 - Staff Selection Board in their reply, in sum and substance, is that in order to obviate any inadvertence on the part of a candidate, a public notice dtd. 2/3/2023 (Annex.R.3/1) was issued for the benefit of all candidates and was duly displayed on the official website. The notice stipulated that, in case, any candidate wished to make any amendments to their online application form, this could be done within the permissible time period, i.e., from 3/3/2023 to 12/3/2023, subject to the nominal payment of Rs.300.00. Despite the notice, neither did the petitioner opt to change his category, nor did he ever make any complaint regarding the admit card issued to him. Hence, the petition deserves to be dismissed.