Telangana High Court
A Naresh vs The State Of Telangana And 7 Others on 9 December, 2024
THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE T. MADHAVI DEVI
WRIT PETITION NO.16437 OF 2021
ORDER
In this writ petition, the petitioners are seeking a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not seeking relinquishment option by applying Rule 6-A of the Telangana State Public Service Commission Rules of Procedure for the revised selection list published on 21.06.2021 as per the direction of the Hon'ble High in W.A.No.551 of 2019 dt.03.07.2019, as illegal and arbitrary and without justification and unconstitutional and consequently to direct the respondents to seek relinquishment by applying Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure and select and appoint the petitioners as per their merit and eligibility to the post of Forest Beat Officer under the 1st respondent notified vide Notification No.48/2017 dt.15.08.2017 against the resultant unfilled vacancies by following Rule 6-A and to pass such other order or orders.
2. Brief facts leading to the filing of the present Writ Petition are that the 2nd respondent TSPSC has issued Notification No.48/2017 W.P.No.16437 of 2021 2 dt.15.08.2017 for selection to the posts of Forest Beat Officers in the Forest Department. The results of the said selection process were declared and thereafter, the selected candidates also appeared for walking test. The petitioners also appeared for the examination held on 29.10.2017 and secured qualifying marks but below the cut-off marks in their respective Districts against the respective communities. But they also participated in the walking test. Thereafter, the 2nd respondent published the list of provisionally selected candidates on 12.02.2019 and while this recruitment was in progress, the results of several other recruitments for higher posts such as Forest Range Officer and Forest Section Officer and other posts such as Village Revenue Officer were also published and some of the candidates, who were in the provisionally selected list of FBOs, were also selected for other posts and thus did not join or relinquish or resign from the said posts resulting in vacancies. The 2nd respondent had not sought the relinquishment from the provisionally selected candidates for the post of Forest Beat Officer as per Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure and some candidates filed W.P.No.4495 of 2019 seeking a direction against the 2nd respondent TSPSC to follow Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure in the case of Forest Beat Officers also and the Hon'ble High Court, vide order W.P.No.16437 of 2021 3 dt.11.06.2019, had allowed the Writ Petition directing the TSPSC to follow Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure even in recruitment to the post of Forest Beat Officer as was done by them in respect of Forest Section Officer and Forest Range Officer. It is submitted that pursuant to the same, while the petitioners were waiting for the Rule to be followed and hoping to be placed in the selection list against any relinquished vacancies as per their merit and eligibility, the respondents filed W.A.No.551 of 2019 and it was disposed of on 03.07.2019 confirming the order of the Single Judge and directing the respondents to follow Rule 6-A and in order to protect the interest of the candidates who have already been appointed, i.e., respondents 1 to 6 therein, this Court had directed to reserve six posts for their benefit and to consider their candidature in any vacancy that would arise if any candidate has not joined the service after implementing the selection list. It is submitted in accordance with the said directions of the High Court, after lapse of two years, on 21.06.2021, the 2nd respondent published the revised selection list after relinquishments containing a list of 1771 candidates + 72 agency candidates out of total number of posts of 1857 notified in the Notification No.48/2017 dt.15.08.2017. It is submitted that the said list contained the hall ticket numbers also of such W.P.No.16437 of 2021 4 candidates who had earlier resigned, relinquished or absented, in the selection and not the next meritorious candidates, and therefore, the petitioners were aggrieved by the same. It is submitted that only the list of such candidates who were eligible for appointment but have not been invited earlier, should have been published and not the list of persons who were provisionally selected but had already resigned, relinquished or were absent. It is submitted that in all other recruitments, the respondents have followed Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure and have included the next meritorious persons in place of the relinquished candidates, but the same has not been followed in the present case. Challenging the said action of the respondents, the present Writ Petition has been filed.
3. Respondent No.2 has filed its counter affidavit and respondent No.3 also has filed written instructions. According to respondent No.2, Notifications were issued for selection of Forest Beat Officers, Forest Range Officers and Forest Section Officers and Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure was followed by TSPSC for the post of Forest Range Officer and Forest Section Officer but since the Forest Beat Officer was a lower cadre post, it was of the opinion that Rule 6-A need not be followed in the said case. It is submitted that on the instructions W.P.No.16437 of 2021 5 of this Court in W.P.No.4495 of 2019 and W.A.No.551 of 2019, the TSPSC has followed Rule 6-A subsequently and has filled up the vacancies and therefore, it need not again issue notices under Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure for further vacancies. He submitted that it would become never ending process if Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure was to be followed till all the vacancies are filled up, and the recruitment process would never get concluded.
4. On the direction of this Court to give the details of the unfilled vacancies even after following Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure, the 3rd respondent has filed written instructions, according to which, 17 vacancies of Forest Beat Officers, in general category, have remained unfilled even after following Rule 6-A of the TSPSC Rules of Procedure pursuant to the directions of this Court in W.P.No.4495 of 2019.
5. Having regard to the rival contentions and the material on record, this Court finds that while complying with the directions of this Court in W.P.No.4495 of 2019, the respondents have issued notices not only to next meritorious candidates but also to the candidates who had earlier resigned, relinquished and absented. According to Rule 6-A of the TSPSC Rules of Procedure, only because of such instances, notices have W.P.No.16437 of 2021 6 to again be issued, but to the next meritorious candidates and therefore, the TSPSC ought not to have issued notices to such candidates who were provisionally selected, but absented themselves or relinquished or resigned from their posts. However, it is not the case of the petitioners that such candidates have exercised their right and have been appointed to the said post. Seventeen (17) posts of general category Forest Beat Officers remained unfilled which are carried forward to the next Notification. As rightly pointed out by the learned Standing Counsel for TSPSC, Rule 6-A of TSPSC Rules of Procedure cannot be applied endlessly. The first instance is when the provisional selection list is published and the vacancies remain unfilled or fall vacant due to resignation, relinquishment or absentation of the candidates and in such circumstances, the TSPSC has to follow Rule 6-A. There is no limitation prescribed in the TSPSC Rules of Procedure on the number of times Rule 6-A notices have to be issued. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion that a quietus would have to be given to the process and therefore, in the interest of justice and in the present scenario, where there are large number of unemployed youth waiting for appointments to Government service, it would be in the interest of justice that at least three instances of Rule 6-A notice may be given.
W.P.No.16437 of 20217
6. In view thereof, this Court directs respondent No.2 to issue notice under Rule 6-A of the Telangana State Public Service Commission Rules of Procedure to the next meritorious candidates for the post of FBO, and fill up the vacancies with the eligible candidates and the balance, if any, shall also be filled by issuing notices under Rule 6-A of the Telangana State Public Service Commission Rules of Procedure and after the third time, the remaining vacancies shall be carried forward to the next Notification.
7. The Writ Petition is accordingly disposed of. No order as to costs.
8. Pending miscellaneous petitions, if any, in this Writ Petition shall stand closed.
___________________________ JUSTICE T. MADHAVI DEVI Date: 09.12.2024 Svv