SHREE KANT SHARMA Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. Debi Prasad learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Mr. Rajiv Sharma learned counsel appearing for respondent No. 4 and the learned Advocate General. In this writ application the petitioner has challenged the appointment of respondent No. 4 as Member Secretary, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board on the ground that while appointing respondent No. 4, the respondent -State have not followed the rules and the procedure and without making any advertisement and without considering the cases of other persons including the petitioner, the said respondent No. 4 has been appointed. The contention of the petitioner is that the respondent No. 4 although does not possess the requisite qualification, knowledge and experience has been selected for the post of Member Secretary. The grievance of the petitioner is that since the post of Member Secretary was not advertised he could not apply for the post and the Government adopted pick and choose method in appointing respondent No. 4

(2.) THE Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board has been constituted under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 vide Government resolution dated 6 -7 -01. Sub -section (2)(f) of Section 4 lays down the provision regarding appointment of Member Secretary. According to which there shall be a full time Member Secretary possessing qualification, knowledge and experience of scientific engineering or management aspect of pollution control to be appointed by the State Government. The contention of the petitioner is that he is fully qualified and having knowledge and experience in the subject. He is in environment science having P.hd. degree from North Eastern Hill University and is presently holding the post of Chief Executive Officer in a Environment Consultancy Firm at Ranchi. The respondent No. 4 on the other hand in his counter -affidavit has fully described his academic qualification. Para 21 of the counteraffidavit is quoted here in below. That it is stated that the respondent No. 4 possesses the required qualifications as laid under Section 4(2)(f) and has the knowledge and experience of Scientific, Engineering and Management aspects of Pollution Control as will be evident from the following (a) That respondent No. 4 is an officer of All India Engineering Services and belongs to 1994 batch recruited by Union Public Service Commission through all India open competition. (b) That respondent No. 4 has a graduation degree in Civil Engineering with honours in 1992 from University of Roorkee, now converted into Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, a premier institute with worldwide recognition. The course material of Civil Engineering which the respondent No. 4 underwent includes a full -fledged course in Environmental Engineering. He has completed a final year project at graduation level on ''The Design of Sewerage and Sewage Treatment Plant for Domestic Wastewater of a City ''. He undertook this specific project on Environment Engineering because of his keen interest in environment protection from the initial stage. (c) That at the post graduation level, respondent No. 4 has acquired a Master degree in Environment Engineering in 1994 with honours from the University of Roorkee, Roorkee. The course material includes the Pollution Control with respect to Air, Water. Land, Sound and Solid waste, During this period, he had an opportunity to specialize in the treatment of waste water using high -rate anaerobic process viz. Up flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor. (d) That respondent No. 4 has delivered a seminar while pursuing his master degree on ''Probabilistic Environmental Risk of Hazardous Materials ''. (e) That the respondent No. 4 has worked as a Senior Research Fellow in the Environmental Engineering section of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Roorkee, Roorkee for one and half years. During this period, he has carried out extensive research in the area of waste water treatment and published research papers. (f) That respondent No. 4 has been actively involved with the design and execution of waste water treatment unit for the colony and offices of the Post and Telegraph Department at various places, such as, Kanpur, Lucknow (U.P.) and Junagadh (Gujarat).

(3.) SO far the grievance of the petitioner is that the post of Member Secretary was not filled up by open advertisement 1 am of the opinion that if the State Government appoint any of the Government servants who possesses requisite qualification and experience then the process of advertisement interview etc. is not required specially for the purpose of filling up the statutory posts. Having given any anxious consideration in the matter and considering the fact of the case it cannot be held that respondent No. 4 does not possess requisite qualification for being appointed as Member Secretary of the Board.