Himachal Pradesh High Court
Dr. Geetanjali Sharma & Others vs Himachal Pradesh Public Service ... on 18 September, 2023
Author: Sandeep Sharma
Bench: Sandeep Sharma
IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWP No.5345 of 2023 Date of Decision: 18.09.2023 .
__________________________________________________ Dr. Geetanjali Sharma & others .......Petitioners Versus Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission ... Respondent Coram:
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sandeep Sharma, Judge. Whether approved for reporting? 1 Yes.
of For the Petitioners: Mr. Kush Sharma, Advocate.
For the Respondent: Mr. Vikrant Thakur, Advocate. __________________________________________________ rt Sandeep Sharma, Judge(oral):
By way of instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioners have prayed for following main reliefs:-
"1. That the impugned action of the respondent-Commission to shortlist the candidates for post of Ayurvedic Medical Officer in contravention to the terms and conditions of Advertisement (Annexure P-1) vide impugned press note dated 05.08.2023 (Annexure P-6) may kindly be quashed and set-aside.
2. That the respondents may also be directed to evaluate the revised answer key (Annexure P-7) and pursuant thereto result of screening test for post of Ayurvedic Medical Officer may kindly be redone to assess the correct merit of the petitioners and further the wrong answer key 1 Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 2
(Annexure P-7) may kindly be held to be of no legal consequence and be quashed and set aside."
2. Precisely, the facts of the case, as emerge from the .
record are that on 28.08.2022, respondent-Commission advertised 100 posts of Ayurvedic Medical Officer Class-1 (Gazetted) vide advertisement No.55/08-2022. On 12.10.2022, respondent-
Commission issued addendum to advertise 68 more posts of of Ayurvedic Medical Officer, which were reserved for ward of ex-
servicemen. Petitioners being fully eligible applied for the post in question and they were allotted Roll Nos. 1203084, 12030303, rt 12030306 and 12030026, respectively. However, despite petitioners having cleared screening test, they were not called for personality test and as such, have approached this Court in the instant proceedings, praying therein for reliefs, as have been reproduced hereinabove.
3. Precisely, the grouse of the petitioners as has been highlighted in the petition and further canvassed by Mr. Kush Sharma, learned counsel representing the petitioners, is that once petitioners had qualified screening test, respondent-Commission in terms of Clause 7(B)(ii)(b)(i) of Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (Procedure & Transaction of Business and Procedure for conduct of the Screening Test/Examinations & Personality Tests ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 3 etc.) Rules 2021(for short 'Rules'), ought to have called them for personality test.
4. Mr. Vikrant Thakur, learned counsel representing the .
respondent-Commission while refuting aforesaid submissions made on behalf of the petitioners, contended that mere passing of screening test would not make candidate eligible directly to participate in personality test. He submitted that screening test in of terms of aforesaid Rules is only done to ascertain the zone of consideration for scrutiny of the documents. He further submitted rt that after scrutiny, Rules 7(B)(vi) of the Rules would come into operation, which itself provides ratio for inviting candidate for personality test. He further submitted that though in the case at hand, two petitioners namely, Dr. Asha Rani and Dr. Jyoti Sharma had come in the zone of consideration on account of their having passed screening test, but they were unable to find place in the final merit list prepared for personality test. Mr. Thakur, categorically submitted on the basis of the record that petitioner No.1, Dr. Geetanjali Sharma and petitioner No.3, Dr. Tanuj Thakur were unable to fall in the zone of consideration and as such, their documents otherwise not required to be scrutinized.
5. Having heard learned counsel representing the parties and perused material available on record, especially reply filed by ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 4 the respondent- Commission, this Court finds that facts, as have been noticed hereinabove, have been not disputed, rather stand admitted. Precisely, the submission of the petitioners as raised in .
the instant petition, is that in terms of Rule 7(B)(ii)(b)(i) offline Screening Test was to be conducted and successful candidates therein were to be called for personality test.
6. Mr. Kush Sharma, learned counsel representing the of petitioners while making this court peruse aforesaid provision, vehemently argued that after having cleared Screening Test, no rt further merit list was required to be prepared by the respondent-
Commission, rather candidates in ratio of 1:4 in the case of 20 or above were to be called for personality test. He further submitted that since in the case at hand, 41 posts of general category were advertised, minimum 164 candidates, who had passed screening tests, were to be shortlisted for personality test. He submitted that since all the petitioners had obtained minimum marks required for appearing screening test and they had come in the ratio of 1:4, respondent-Commission erred in not inviting them for personality test.
7. Before ascertaining correctness of the aforesaid submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioners, it would be apt to take note of Clause 7(B) of the Rules hereinbelow:-
::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 5(B) SELECTION OF CANDIDATES TO THE POSTS SHALL BE MADE ON THE BASIS OF PERSONALITY TEST PRECEEDED BY SCREENING TEST (DESCRITPTIVE (WRITTEN) OR OBJECTIVE - COMPUTER BASED TEST (CBT) OR OFFLINE .
TEST) OR PERSONALITY TEST, AS THE CASE MAY BE, IN THE CASES WHERE NO SELECTION PROCEDURE HAS BEEN PRESCRIBED IN THE RESPECTIVE NOTIFIED R&P RULES:
(i) Where ratio between the number of eligible candidates and the posts advertised is below thirteen or as the Commission may deem fit, then all of them shall directly be called for personality of test.
Provided that in exceptional case(s) the method of selection to the advertised post(s) shall be decided by the Commission as rt may deem fit.
(ii) In the cases where the number of eligible candidates for recruitment to the post(s) advertised by the Commission is inordinately large, the Commission may limit / shortlist the number of eligible candidates to be called for personality test by subjecting them to either Computer Based Screening Test (objective-type) or Offline Screening Test (objective / descriptive) of two hours duration.
Provided that Computer Based Screening Test shall be conducted in single slot with same question paper and in different slots with different set of question papers depending upon the total number of candidates who have to take the test and the number of computer terminals available to the Commission at the particular date for Computer Based Screening Test.
(a) In the Computer Based Test (CBT) (objective type) there will be 100 questions of 01 mark each on the basis of syllabus approved by the Commission for the test. Each question will be followed by four (a, b, c, d) answer options. The candidate will have to click on the circle adjacent to the option he / she thinks is correct. The answer key of CBT (objective type) shall be ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 6 uploaded online on the 'MY EXAMINATION MY ONLINE REVIEW' in the User IDs of all appeared candidates immediately after its conduct for inviting objection(s) for which 03 (three) days time from the day of publishing of answer key (day .
of publishing of the answer key plus 3 (three) next days upto 11.59 P.M. of the last date of receipt of objections after which the link will be disabled) shall be given to them to submit their objection(s) in online mode only. Objection(s) submitted in any other mode will not be entertained. The received objection(s), if any, will be got verified from the concerned Subject Expert / Paper Setter. Based on the opinion / decision of the concerned of Subject Expert / Paper Setter to the objection(s) raised by the candidates the revised answer key shall be prepared & finalized. After finalization of answer key category-wise zone of rt consideration in the ratio of 1:4 in the case of 20 & above category-wise posts advertised, in the ratio of 1:5 in the case of 11 to 19 category-wise posts advertised and in the ratio of 1:6 + 3 in the case of 10 or less than 10 category-wise posts advertised will be prepared and provided by the Secrecy Cell on the basis of performance of the candidates in the CBT to check their eligibility by the Branch responsible for making direct recruitment on the basis of documents uploaded by them on the OTRS portal at the time of filling up of ORA. In case the number of candidate(s) to be declared qualified for personality test fall(s) below the prescribed ratio then to meet this shortfall an additional category wise zone of consideration as per requirement shall be prepared by the Secrecy Cell. In respect of the scrapped question(s) no credit to appeared candidates shall be given. The final answer key alongwith question paper shall be uploaded on the website of the Commission immediately after the declaration of the result of the CBT. No objection(s) / representation(s) shall be entertained against the final answer key.
(b) (i) In the offline Screening Test (objective type) (except Preliminary Examinations) there will be 100 questions of 01 ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 7 mark each on the basis of syllabus approved by the Commission for the test. Each question will be followed by four (a, b, c, d) answer options. The candidate will have to encircle / blacken the option he / she thinks is right / correct on the OMR answer sheet .
with blue / black ball pen. The answer key of offline Screening Test (objective type) shall be uploaded on the website of the Commission immediately after the conduct of offline screening test for inviting objections from the appeared candidates for which 07 (seven) days time (day of publishing the key plus seven days upto 05.00 P.M. of the prescribed last date of receipt of objections) shall be given. The received objection(s), if any, of will be got verified from the concerned Subject Expert / Paper Setter. Based on the opinion / decision of the concerned Subject Expert / Paper Setter to the objection(s) raised by the rt candidates the revised answer key shall be prepared & finalized. After finalization of answer key the OMR answer sheets of the candidates who appeared in the offline Screening Test shall be scanned in the OMR Scanner and evaluated by using the final answer key to prepare a category-wise zone of consideration in the ratio of 1:4 in the case of 20 & above category-wise posts advertised, in the ratio of 1:5 in the case of 11 to 19 category- wise posts advertised and in the ratio of 1:6 + 3 in the case of 10 or less than 10 category-wise posts advertised will be prepared by the Secrecy Cell on the basis of performance of the candidates in the offline Screening Test, to check their eligibility by the Branch responsible for making direct recruitment on the basis of documents uploaded by them on the OTRS portal at the time of filling up of ORA. In case the number of candidate(s) to be declared qualified for personality test fall(s) below the prescribed ratio i.e. six candidates for a single post and three candidates for every subsequent post then to meet this shortfall an additional zone of consideration as per requirement shall be prepared by the Secrecy Cell. In respect of scrapped question(s) no credit to appeared candidates shall be given. The final answer key shall be uploaded on the website of the Commission ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 8 immediately after the declaration of the result of the offline screening Test. No objection(s) / representation(s) shall be entertained against the final answer key.
8. Careful perusal of aforesaid provision contained under .
the Rules, clearly reveals that screening test was to be conducted for shortlisting the candidates for personality test. Screening test was purposely conducted to minimize the applicants and to prepare zone of consideration. As per afore Rule, once eligible candidate of passes screening test, he/she is to compete to find place in zone of consideration, which is to be subsequently ascertained on the basis rt overall merit of screening test. As per aforesaid Rules, after ascertaining merit interse candidates, who passed screening test, documents are to be verified and thereafter candidates are to be selected for personality test in the ratio of 1:6+3 in the case of 10 or less than 10. Precisely, six candidates for a single post and three candidates for every subsequent post.
9. To meet shortfall, if any, an additional zone of consideration is/was to be prepared by the Secrecy Cell of the Commission. In the instant case, precisely, the case of the petitioners is that as per aforesaid Rule zone of consideration was to be prepared in the ratio of 1:4 in the case of 20 and above, meaning thereby candidates, who had cleared screening test, were to be shortlisted for further personality test in the ratio of 1:4 in the case of ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 9 20 and above category-wise posts advertised. Since in the case at hand, 41 posts were advertized for general category, applying aforesaid ratio 1:4, 164 candidates were required to be shortlisted .
for personality test. However, having scanned rules in its entirety, this Court finds merit in the submission of learned counsel for the respondent-Commission that after having conducted screening test, Commission is to prepare merit list on two stages, first to ascertain of zone of consideration and then to send the eligible candidates for personality test. Merely, passing in screening test would not give rt any right to the candidate concerned to participate in personality test, rather at first stage, Commission would shortlist the candidates in the ratio of 1:4 on the basis of their merit and thereafter after verification of the documents, selected candidates in the ratio of 1:6+3 in the case of 20 and above shall be sent for personality test.
No doubt, in the case at hand, two candidates Dr. Jyoti Sharma and Dr. Asha Rani passed screening test, but they were unable to find place in the zone of consideration and as such, rightly were not considered for being sent for personality test.
10. On the last date of hearing, learned counsel representing the petitioner vehemently argued that as per instruction imparted to him, all the petitioners had not only cleared screening test, but they would have also got place in merit had department ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 10 applied ratio of 1:4 in place of 1:6. To ascertain the correctness of aforesaid submission, this Court specifically called upon respondent to make available record. Pursuant to aforesaid order passed by this .
Court counsel representing respondent made available record, perusal whereof clearly reveals that at first instance 168 candidates belonging to general category were shortlisted to ascertain the zone of consideration against 41 posts in general category in the ratio of of 1:4. Since two petitioners namely, Dr. Geetanjali Sharma and Dr. Tanuj Thakur were unable to find place among 168 selected rt candidates, their documents were not verified, whereas two petitioners namely, Dr. Jyoti Shamra and Dr. Asha Rani though succeeded in finding place in list prepared for ascertaining zone of consideration, but ultimately they also failed to find place in merit list prepared for shortlisting the candidates for personality test, which admittedly came to be prepared on the basis of ratio 1:6+3.
11. At this stage, it would be apt to take note of Clause 7(B)(vi) of the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission(Procedure & Transaction of Business and Procedure for conduct of the Screening Tests/Examinations & Personality Tests etc.) Rules 2021:-
"(vi) Number of candidates to be called for Personality Test on the basis of Computer Based Test/Offline Test (objective or descriptive):
Normally six eligible candidates for a single post and three eligible candidates for every subsequent post will be ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 11 declared qualified. If the number of qualified candidates in a particular category is fewer then all of them will be called for personality test. In case there is a tie between or amongst the candidates on account of having obtained equal minimum cut off marks in the Screening Test all such .
candidates shall be called for the personality test."
12. Careful perusal aforesaid clause clearly reveals that after finalization of answer key category-wise, in case number of posts in the category falls between 11 to 19, then the Secrecy Department is required to check the eligibility of the candidates in of the ratio of 1:5 and thereafter for personality test, as per Clause 7 (B) (iii) of the Rules, normally six eligible candidates for a single post rt and three eligible candidates for every subsequent post shall be declared qualified.
13. Since in the case at hand, 41 posts were available in general category, 168 candidates were initially declared successful for verification of documents, but ultimately only 132 candidates were called for personality test. Though, Mr. Kush Sharma, learned counsel for the petitioners vehemently argued that aforesaid clause pressed into service by the Commission is not applicable in the present case, especially when same was not incorporated in the advertisement, but having carefully perused language employed in the advertisement, this Court finds that though there is no specific mention of aforesaid clause in the advertisement, but language is almost same and as such, mere non-incorporation of aforesaid ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 12 provision in the advertisement will not change the position. The Division Bench of this Court in case titled Ambika Sharma and others versus State of Himachal Pradesh and another CWP .
No.8149 of 2022, had an occasion to deal with similar situation, wherein Division bench of this Court having taken note of aforesaid Clause held as under:
"8. Clause 7(B)(vi) of the Himachal Pradesh Public Service of Commission (Procedure & Transaction of Business and Procedure for Conduct of the Screening Tests/Examinations & Personality Tests etc.) Rules, 2021 (Annexure P-3), reads as under:-
rt "(vi) Number of candidates to be called for Personality Test on the basis of Computer Based Test/Offline Test (objective or descriptive): Normally six eligible candidates for a single post and three eligible candidates for every subsequent post will be declared qualified. If the number of qualified candidates in a particular category is fewer then all of them will be called for personality test. In case there is a tie between or amongst the candidates on account of having obtained equal minimum cut off marks in the Screening Test all such candidates shall be called for the personality test."
9. A perusal of the above clauses reveal that the advertisement has been issued as per the relevant Rules. Thus, after the finalization of answer key category-wise, in case number of posts in the category falls between 11 to 19, then the Secrecy Department is required to check the eligibility of the candidates in the ratio of 1:5 and thereafter for personality test, as per Clause 7 (B) (iii) of the Rules, normally six eligible candidates for a single post and three eligible candidates for every subsequent post will be declared qualified. Thus, so far as the personality test is concerned, as there were 11 posts in the general category, 37 eligible candidates were required to be declared qualified for the personality test.
10. Learned counsel for respondent No.1 has submitted that vide Annexure P-2, 37 candidates in the general category have been declared qualified for the personality test. Thus, there is no force in the submission made by learned counsel for the petitioners that the requisite number of candidates have not been declared qualified for the personality test."
::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS 1314. Consequently, in view of the detailed discussion made hereinabove as well as law taken into consideration, this Court finds .
no merit in the present petition and accordingly, same is dismissed alongwith pending applications, if any.
15. (Sandeep Sharma), Judge September 18, 2023 (shankar) of rt ::: Downloaded on - 21/09/2023 20:33:39 :::CIS