Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Santanu Bank vs State Of West Bengal & Ors on 5 June, 2012
Author: Harish Tandon
Bench: Harish Tandon
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In The High Court At Calcutta
Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
Appellate side
Present :
The Hon'ble Justice Harish Tandon.
W. P. No. 8016 (w) of 2010
Santanu Bank
-vs-
State of West Bengal & Ors.
For the petitioner : Mr. Arunava Banerjee
: Ms. Simantika Dasgupta
For the Council : Mr. Sk. Kamaluddin
Heard On : 11th April, 2012
Judgment on : 5th June, 2012
HARISH TANDON, J.:
The core issue involved in this writ petition is whether the candidates of reserved category should be placed under the unreserved category if he obtains higher marks than the minimum bench mark set under the unreserved category.
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It is revealed from Paragraph 16 of the writ petition that the minimum bench marks set under the General category was 47.7000 whereas the highest marks set under the OBC category is 48.82.
According to the petitioner, the OBC category candidate who secured above 47.7000 marks should have been placed under the unreserved category so that the seats earmarked for the OBC category should not be disturbed and be remained intact for being filled up by the rest of the OBC category candidates.
At the time of initiation of the selection process, West Bengal Teachers' Recruitment Rules, 2001 was in vogue and undisputedly, the said selection process was conducted under the provision of the said rules. Rule 6(2) of the said rules provides educational qualification of the said post which at the time of its promulgation stood as above:
"(2) The education qualifications for the post of a teacher shall be-
(a) School Final/Madhyamik pass under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education or equivalent, "with training"
(b) Erstwhile Higher Secondary pass (XI class) under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, or equivalent. "with training"."
3Subsequently by Notification No. 1261-SE(Pry) 10-M16/2003 dated 16.12.2005 the words "with training" were omitted from the aforesaid rule. However, Sub-Rule 6 of Rule 6 was inserted by the said notification providing priority and preference to the trained candidates.
Rule 9 (1) of the said rules required the different District Primary School Council to communicate all candidates in writing sponsored by the Employment Exchange to produce testimonial/certificates for computation of their marks in the score sheets. The method of calculation/computation is provided in Sub-Rule 2 thereof in following manner:
"(2) Credit shall be given and computed in the following manner;
(a) there shall be 100 marks in total as full marks;
(b) out of 100 marks, 90 marks shall be computed and allotted in the following manner :-
(i) Academic qualifications as prescribed in Clauses (a) and (b) of sub-rule (2) of Rule 6 65 marks
(ii) Training as prescribed in clause (d) of Sub-rule (2) 22 marks
(iii) Co-curricular activities as prescribed in Clause (f) of sub-rule (2) 3 marks Total 90 marks The remaining 10(ten) marks shall be allotted for written test;
(c) the percentage of marks to the total full marks obtained by a candidate in School Final/Madhyamik Pariksha/Higher Secondary (XI class) shall be computed as percentage of 65 marks and to be recorded in the score sheet.
(d) The percentage of marks to the total full marks obtained in Junior Basic training certificate/Primary Teachers' Training Certificate Examination or equivalent shall be computed as percentage of 22 (twenty two) and recorded in the score sheet;4
(e) Marks obtained in the written test shall be recorded in the score sheet;
(f) In awarding marks for co-curricular activities one mark shall be credited for,-
(i) a certificate that he represented the district in State level games or sports, issued by West Bengal School Sports Association;
(ii) the 'A', 'B', or 'C' level certificate of National Cadet Corps: Provided that the maximum of such marks to be credited shall not exceed three."
Under Sub-Rule 3 and 4, the marks obtained on the basis of the academic qualification, training and co-curricular candidates as provided in Sub-Rule 2, thereof, shall be recorded in the list prepared for each category in descending order and the selection committee shall permit the candidates to participate in the written test in a ratio of 1:5. The total marks in 100.roster shall be arranged in descending order in terms of Sub- Rule 7 of Rule 9 of the said rules.
As per Sub-Rule 8 of Rule 9 of the said rules, which is relevant in the present context, it is imperative on the selection committee to prepare at first the panel of the candidates under the General category only including the candidates of all reserved categories and shall arrange the same in the order of their merit. The selection committee shall, thereafter, filled up the vacancies declared under the general category on the basis of the merit irrespective of the fact that the candidature of the candidate has been 5 sponsored by the Employment Exchange in any of the reserved category. It is only after the seats earmarked for general category is filled up, the selection committee shall prepare a separate panel for the Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward candidates in the reserved category from amongst the remaining candidate of such categories. In the event, there is non-availability of the suitable qualified exempted category candidate, the vacancy shall be filled up by the non-exempted category candidate belonging to the General, Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically Handicapped Category as the case may be. However, in case of non-availability of the suitable qualified ex- serviceman candidate, the said vacancy is required to be filled up by non- exservice categories.
On conjoint reading of the aforesaid provisions, it is culled out that all candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchange shall be allowed to submit the testimonial/certificates for the purpose of computation of the marks out of 90 marks and shall be recorded in the score-sheet in descending order for each category. The candidates from the top of the list of the each category shall be called to sit in the written test in 1:5 ratio. Thereafter, one list shall be prepared by the selection committee on merit by including the candidates of all categories and shall, thereafter, filled up 6 the post earmarked for general category from the top of the list. After all the post of the general category are filled up, a separate panel shall be prepared for Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Classes candidates from the remaining candidates of the each categories.
The Affidavit-in-Opposition filed by the Council reveals that the minimum cut off marks fixed under the general category at the time of preparation of the first panel was 48.8944. It is further disclosed that because of the non-availability of the suitable qualified exempted category candidates, the 161 posts reserved for such category was converted into non-exempted category and were filled up by giving an appointment to the candidate of the respective sub-categories and for such reason, the minimum cut off marks has been shown as 47.7000. It is further stated therein that the vacancies under the OBC category were filled up with the candidates securing between 48.8278 to 45.8722 marks whereas the petitioner whose candidature is considered under the OBC category obtained 44.92 marks, much below the minimum bench mark and as such, was not given an appointment. Since the last candidate under the general category in the first list which was prepared on merit obtained 48.8944, the petitioner having acquired much lesser marks has been rightly eliminated from the zone of an appointment. The procedure for 7 selection as enshrined in the said Recruitment Rules have been followed by the authority and the petitioner could not demonstrate before this court that there has been an infraction and/or deviation from the said provision.
Therefore, I do not find any illegality and/or infirmity in the selection process.
The writ petition, therefore, fails.
There shall be, however, no order as to costs.
Urgent photostat certified copy be supplied to the parties, if applied for, on priority basis.
(Harish Tandon, J.)