Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur
Bhawna Lohar vs State Of Rajasthan on 24 May, 2022
Author: Arun Bhansali
Bench: Arun Bhansali
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT
JODHPUR
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1535/2022
Bhawna Lohar W/o Kailash Chandra Lohar, Aged About 31 Years,
Dungla, Tehsil Dugla, Dist. Chittorgarh, Rajasthan.
----Petitioner
Versus
1. State Of Rajasthan, Through Secretary, Department Of
Medical And Health Services, Rajasthan, Jaipur.
2. Director, Directorate Of Medical And Health Services,
Rajasthan, Tilak Marg, Swasthya Bhawan, Jaipur.
3. Additional Director (Administration), Directorate Of
Medical And Health Services, Rajasthan, Tilak Marg,
Swasthya Bhawan, Jaipur.
4. Chief Medical And Health Officer, Chittorgarh, District
Chittorgarh.
----Respondents
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Dinesh Kumar Godara.
Mr. Rajesh Shah.
Mr. Lokesh Mathur.
Mr. Suresh Khadav.
Mr. Yashpal Khileree.
Mr. O.P. Sangwa.
Mr. Bheru Lal Jat.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. K.S. Rajpurohit, AAG with
Mr. Rajat Arora, Mr. Shreyansh Mehta
& Mr. Lucky Rajpurohit.
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN BHANSALI
Order 24/05/2022 This petition along with a bunch of 20 writ petitions, enlisted in the appended Schedule give rise to same issue, which shall be treated to be part and parcel of the order instant, are decided by a common order.
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(2 of 6) [CW-1535/2022] These writ petitions have been filed by the petitioners, who are candidates at the recruitment to the post of Lab Assistant vide notification dated 29.5.2018.
It is inter alia indicated in the writ petitions that the qualification inter alia provided that those having minimum 3 years' experience of working as Laboratory Assistant / Lab Technician in State Government Hospitals on contract basis or through Service Provider Agency, shall also be eligible.
The petitioners being eligible based on the said eligibility indicated after obtaining the requisites from the concerned officers, filed applications. The certificates were valid for eligibility as well as for award of bonus marks as provided in the advertisement.
However, the respondents apparently based on material, which was collected by the respondents ex parte, have not accepted the certificates produced by the petitioners of having worked on the post of Lab Technician / Lab Assistant and treating them as having worked on post different from the said post i.e. as Lab Attendant / Ward-boy / Cleaner / Helper has held them ineligible and have not awarded bonus marks.
Various submissions have been made that in the petitions seeking to question the action of the respondents in rejecting the certificates produced by the petitioners and claiming that they are entitled to be treated as qualified and for award of bonus marks based on the said certificates.
A response to the writ petition initially was filed by the respondents seeking to indicate that the respondents after looking to the nature of certificates produced by the petitioners, have sought specific inputs from the authorities, which have issued the (Downloaded on 24/05/2022 at 09:07:16 PM) (3 of 6) [CW-1535/2022] certificates based on an Eleven Pointer issued to the said authorities and as the said authorities have disclosed facts in the Eleven Pointer, which indicates that the experience of the petitioners is not that of Lab Technician / Lab Assistant, they have been held as ineligible.
Today learned counsel appearing for the State has made an additional submission by referring to the Rajasthan Medical and Health Subordinate Service (Second Amendment) Rules, 2021, that in terms of the amendment made by notification dated 9.12.2021, which has came into effect from 23.5.2018 and essentially pertains to the advertisement dated 29.5.2018, the requirement for eligibility inter alia includes diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology even from the un-recognized institution besides the experience on the post of Laboratory Technician or Laboratory Assistant.
Further submissions have been made that the authorities which have issued the certificates were specifically required to indicate the nature of duties performed by the candidates based on the job responsibilities of various posts, which were supplied to them and then come to a conclusion as on what post, the experience was gained by the candidates and based on the said material, the decision has been taken, which cannot be faulted. However, it is not denied that the issue has been decided by the authorities holding the petitioners as not qualified without affording any opportunity of hearing to them and in teeth of the certificates issued by the very same authorities, who have responded to the Eleven Pointer.
In the circumstances of the case, where admittedly the respondents have relied on certain material, which has been (Downloaded on 24/05/2022 at 09:07:16 PM) (4 of 6) [CW-1535/2022] collected ex parte supplied by the same authorities, who have issued the certificates favouring the petitioners making them eligible for the appointment in terms of the advertisement dated 29.5.2018, which certificate is sought to be displaced based on such material, the said action could not have been taken by the respondents without affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners and/or at least calling upon them to respond to the proposed action on their part by disclosing the material / Eleven Pointer response received by them, therefore, the said action of the respondents is in gross violation of principles of natural justice.
In view of the above fact situation, wherein, admittedly the petitioners have not been afforded any opportunity of hearing before the respondents have come to the conclusion based on the material received by them disqualifying the petitioners for the post of Laboratory Assistant, the action of the respondents in this regard cannot be approved.
Consequently, the petitions filed by the petitioners are allowed. The action of the respondents in deciding the issue without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioners, is set aside. The respondents would now disclose the material to the petitioners and on the petitioners making a representation in this regard, they would decide the eligibility of the petitioners / the validity of the certificate issued to them and based on their decision, would proceed further in the matter.
The Director (Non-Gazetted) would disclose the material within a period of 15 days to the petitioners, response / representation, if any, be made by the petitioners within a period of two weeks thereafter to the Director (Non-Gazetted) and he (Downloaded on 24/05/2022 at 09:07:16 PM) (5 of 6) [CW-1535/2022] would pass appropriate orders on the same within a period of four weeks thereafter.
The petitioners would be free to take appropriate proceedings, in case, they have any grievance qua the decision taken by the respondents in this regard.
The respondents shall not conclude the recruitment before passing of the final orders as indicated hereinbefore.
Insofar as, the issue sought to be raised by the respondents based on the notification dated 9.12.2021 is concerned, the said issue is kept open.
(ARUN BHANSALI),J 39 & Schedule Annexed Sumit Sharma/-
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Schedule
S.No. Item WRIT PETITION PARTY NAME
No. No(s).
1. 51 SBCWP No.4174/2022 Gaytri Garg State & Ors.
2. 52 SBCWP No.4186/2022 Pawan Kumar State & Ors.
3. 53 SBCWP No.4182/2022 Bharti State & Ors.
4. 54 SBCWP No.4193/2022 Chander Bhan State & Ors.
5. 55 SBCWP No.4249/2022 Naveen Mali State & Ors.
6. 57 SBCWP No.4462/2022 Vijendra Raj Lodha State & Ors.
7. 70 SBCWP No.5072/2022 Imran Khan State & Ors.
8. 89 SBCWP No.6079/2022 Mahendra Singh State & Ors.
9. 147 SBCWP No.3375/2022 Harish Kumar Salvi State & Ors.
10. 148 SBCWP No.3455/2022 Dinesh Kharadi State & Ors.
11. 160 SBCWP No.4172/2022 Farid Khan State & Ors.
12. 162 SBCWP No.487/2022 Phool Shanker Maida State & Ors.
13. 163 SBCWP No.591/2022 Dinesh Chandra Soni State & Ors.
14. 164 SBCWP No.612/2022 Girish Kumar State & Ors.
15. 165 SBCWP No.1135/2022 Kamlesh Kumar Bareth State & Ors.
16. 166 SBCWP No.1502/2022 Ashish Kumar State & Ors.
17. 170 SBCWP No.1130/2022 Anita Kumari Garg State & Ors.
18. 171 SBCWP No.1601/2022 Sandeep Singh State & Ors.
19. 172 SBCWP No.1733/2022 Narayan Lal Damor State & Ors.
20. 173 SBCWP No.2962/2022 Jitendra Gaur State & Ors.
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