Uttarakhand High Court
Tarun Pal vs Ministry Of Consumer Affairs Food And ... on 23 February, 2018
Equivalent citations: AIRONLINE 2018 UTR 15
Author: Manoj K. Tiwari
Bench: Manoj K. Tiwari
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL
Writ Petition (S/S) No. 761 of 2017
Tarun Pal ... Petitioner
Vs
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public
Division & another ... Respondents
Mr. Tapan Singh, Advocate, present for the petitioner.
Mr. Arvind Vashisth, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. A.P. Singh, learned counsel for
respondent No. 2.
Hon'ble Manoj K. Tiwari, J. (Oral)
1. By means of this writ petition, following relief has been sought by the petitioner:-
i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding/directing the respondents to empanel the name of the petitioner in the select list for the post of Junior Technical Assistant (Post Code 07) and further be pleased to direct the respondents to give the appointment to the petitioner as per his merit.
2. The relevant facts, as set out in the writ petition, are as follows:-
Petitioner possesses B.Tech (Bio-Chemical Engineering) Degree from Uttarakhand Technical University. Bio-Chemistry was one of the subjects studied by the petitioner in B.Tech course. Central Warehousing Corporation / respondent No. 2 (from hereinafter referred to as "Corporation") issued an advertisement inviting applications from eligible candidates for appointment to various posts, including the post of Junior Technical Assistant (Post Code 07). Pursuant to the said advertisement petitioner applied for the post of Junior Technical Assistant, against a reserved post for OBC category persons. The educational qualification, required for the post of Junior Technical Assistant as mentioned in the advertisement, is as follows:-
"Degree in Agriculture or a degree with Zoology, Chemistry or Bio-Chemistry as one of the subjects"2
4. Petitioner participated in online examination on 18.11.2016 for the post of Junior Technical Assistant under OBC category. Thereafter, he was called for document verification, however, in the final result, declared on 18.04.2017, it was mentioned that petitioner is "not empanelled as he was not meeting the essential qualification criteria for the post". Thus, feeling aggrieved, petitioner has filed this writ petition.
5. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
6. A counter affidavit has been filed by respondent No. 2, in which it is stated that Corporation provides logistic support to the agricultural sector and its Officer/employee need to have in-depth and exhaustive knowledge of the specific department they are handling. It is further stated that Officer/employee of the Corporation must have exhaustive knowledge of scientific storage and handling of more than 400 commodities, including agricultural produce, industrial raw- material, finished goods and variety of hygroscopic and perishable items. Para 9 of the counter affidavit filed on behalf of respondent No. 2 is relevant for appreciating its stand, therefore, the same is extracted below.
"9. That the contents of Para No. 7 are denied out rightly. It is further submitted that the essential qualification criteria for JTA have been kept keeping in view the nature of the job of JTAs. The JTAs are primarily entrusted to supervise the technical work in the Warehouse/Place of posting which involves doing prophylactic and curative treatment of the stock, taking various qualitative refraction of the stocks, completing official technical record, etc. The JTAs also deal with various insects, pests and qualitative as well as quantitative scientific equipments at their place of posting. Thus, a candidate having studied above subject only as one or two papers in their degree will not be eligible since the requirement of the post of specific. The basic crux of the Recruitment rules of JTA is that the candidate must have enough and thorough exposure of the subjects like Chemistry, Zoology or Bio-Chemistry in their bachelor's degree as main subject. Here the 3 applicant has studied Bio-Chemistry as one of the paper for 06 months i.e. in fourth semester of the Degree Course only out of 08 semesters which doesn't mean that the candidate is having enough & thorough exposure of the required subjects. In the current scenario, all BE, B.Tech students irrespective of stream i.e. Civil, Mechanical, Electrical etc. have to study Chemistry as a paper for six months only as per model syllabus issued by AICTE. Hence the applicant was not found suitable/eligible for the post of JTA in view of recruitment rules policy and requirement of the post etc. Having studied only one subject as a part of Degree programme can't be said to have acquired degree with that subject. Moreover, degree courses with subjects like Chemistry, Bio-chemistry and Zoology (like BSc. With Bio-Chemistry, BSc. with Zoology, etc.) are extremely exhaustive in nature and covers in detail the essence and skills that are required in such fields/subjects. The true copies of the curriculum of degree courses with subjects like Chemistry, Bio- Chemistry and Zoology for the consideration of this Hon'ble Court are being appended herein and marked as Annexure No. CA-2 to this affidavit."
7. Learned counsel for respondent No. 2, by referring to para 7 of the writ petition, submits that petitioner has admitted that he studied Bio-chemistry as one subject only in the second year of B.Tech course. By referring to the statement of marks enclosed with the writ petition, learned counsel submits that B.Tech course is divided into eight semesters, out of which, petitioner studied Bio-Chemistry only in the 4th semester. Five papers cleared by the petitioner in 4th semester are as follows:-
1. Biochemistry 2. Heat Transfer Operations
3. Industrial Fuel & Process Calculations
4. Computer Based Numerical & Statistical Technique
5. Chemistry - II
8. A careful perusal of the statement of marks reveals that petitioner has not studied Bio-Chemistry in any other semester, except 4th Semester. His B.Tech degree is in Bio- Chemical Engineering, which is a different discipline altogether. Merely, by passing Bio-Chemistry as one paper, it can not be said that petitioner possesses a degree with Bio- Chemistry, as a subject.
49. In such view of the matter, the stand taken by respondent No. 2 in its counter affidavit appears to be correct. Undisputedly petitioner has not studied Bio-Chemistry in any other semester, except 4th semester, therefore, he does not fulfill the condition of eligibility prescribed by the Corporation/employer.
10. Therefore, there is no scope for interference in the writ petition. The writ petition lacks merit, which is liable to be dismissed.
11. Accordingly, the writ petition stands dismissed. No order as to costs.
(Manoj K. Tiwari, J.) 23.02.2018 Aswal