Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur
Satish Kumar Sharma vs The Secretary,Rpsc, Ajmer on 10 July, 2018
Bench: Pradeep Nandrajog, Dinesh Mehta
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT
JODHPUR
D.B. Spl. Appl. Writ No. 324/2017
Satish Kumar Sharma s/o Late Shri Shyam Sunder, aged about 43
years, by caste Sharma, resident of 2J/35, First Pooliya,
Chaupasni Housing Board, Jodhpur, Dist.Jodhpur (Raj.)
----Appellant
Versus
The Secretary, Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Ajmer
(Raj.).
----Respondent
Connected With
D.B. Spl. Appl. Writ No. 278/2017
Anju Meena D/o Shri Om Prakash Meena, Aged 27 years, R/o
House No.233, Sector-2, New Vidyadhar Nagar, Jaipur, (presently
residing at C/o Shri C.K.Chandak, Adda Bazar, Tapria Street,
Jodhpur (Raj.)).
-----Appellant.
Versus
Rajasthan Public Service Commission through the Secretary,
Ajmer (Raj.).
----Respondent
D.B. Spl. Appl. Writ No. 279/2017
Anu Shree Pradhan D/o Shri Ashok Pradhan, Aged 29 years, R/o
B-123, Gol Market, Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur..
-----Appellant.
Versus
1. The State of Rajasthan through its Principal Secretary,
Department of Personnel, Government Secretariat, Rajasthan,
Jaipur.
2. The Rajasthan Public Service Commission through the
Secretary, Ajmer (Raj.).
----Respondents
For Appellant(s) : Mr.K.K.Shah
Mr.B.L.Swami
For Respondent(s) : Mr.J.P.Joshi, Senior Advocate with
Mr.Khet Singh for RPSC.
(2 of 5) [SAW-324/2017]
HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE PRADEEP NANDRAJOG
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DINESH MEHTA
Judgment Reserved on 09/07/2018 Pronounced on 10/07/2018 Per Hon'ble the Chief Justice
1. By a common judgment dated 8th February, 2017, 16 writ petitions filed have been dismissed by the learned Single Judge. The three captioned appeals have been filed by the appellants:
Satish Kumar Sharma, Anju Meena and Anu Shree Pradhan. It appears that the other writ petitioners are satisfied with the impugned judgment.
2. To fill up posts in the State Service and State Subordinate Service, RPSC issued an advertisement on 18.6.2013 inviting applications from the eligible candidates. Under the caption:
'Important Notes' it was notified to the prospective candidates vide Clause (C) that answers could be attempted to the various questions either in Hindi or English. Not in both languages. It was also indicated that for language papers, answer in concerned language and script has to be given unless directed otherwise to be written in Hindi or English.
3. Four papers had to be attempted by the candidates. Each paper having 200 marks. Paper-I was for General Studies-1. Paper-II was for General Studies-2. Paper-III was for General Studies-3 and Paper-IV was for General Hindi and General English.
4. Dispute with which the learned Single Judge was concerned, and so are we, in the appeals concerns questions No.6 and 7 each carrying '5' marks in Paper-IV i.e. General Hindi and General English.
(3 of 5) [SAW-324/2017]
5. The two questions are in devnagari script but the dialect is in Rajasthani. Pertaining to the two questions the direction is to answer the questions in Rajasthani language.
6. After the results were declared the appellants filed writ petitions pleading that the two questions need to be deleted for the reason the advertisement clearly indicated to the candidates that the question papers had to be attempted either in Hindi or in English. Clause (C) of the advertisement under the caption 'Important Notes' requiring an answer to be given in the concerned language related only to a language paper. That Paper- IV in which the two questions were put was a part of General Hindi and General English.
7. Dismissing the writ petitions filed the learned Single Judge has reasoned that the syllabus made known to the candidates that their knowledge would be tested, amongst others, on the dialect spoken in Rajasthan as also Rajasthani literature. The learned Single Judge has reasoned that therefore the questions were as per the syllabus and thus no prejudice on said count has resulted to the writ petitioners. The learned Single Judge has also further reasoned that the syllabus required knowledge of Rajasthani language and thus the direction qua the two questions i.e. to be answered in Rajasthani language was not an error committed. The learned Single Judge has further highlighted that the three appellants attempted both questions in Rajasthani dialect. The answers were evaluated and marks were assigned. Satish Kumar Sharma wrongly answered the first question and was thus assigned '0' mark. For the second question he was assigned one mark. Similar was the position regarding Anu Shree Pradhan. Anju Meena was given '2' marks for the first question (4 of 5) [SAW-324/2017] and '0' mark for the second. Meaning thereby, the learned Single Judge has found that no prejudice was caused to the appellants.
8. The arguments in the appeals are:-
(i) There is no language known as Rajasthani. In Rajasthan various dialects are spoken but the script is devnagari. In other words the argument is that the direction to answer the two questions in Rajasthani language was inherently flawed because there is no language known as Rajasthani.
(ii) The candidates were clearly told to attempt the answers in Hindi or in English. Only pertaining to language paper was it permissible to require the answer to be in the language concerned. It was argued that Paper-IV was in General Hindi and General English. It was not a language paper.
9. Concerning the second contention urged, suffice it to state that Paper-IV was for General Hindi and General English; and Hindi and English are languages. That the syllabus made it known to the candidates that their knowledge would be tested on Rajasthani script and Rajasthani literature meant that the RPSC could test the knowledge of the candidates on Rajasthani literature with dialect in Rajasthani. By Rajasthani language it has to be understood the various dialects spoken of in Rajasthan and indeed the appellants so understood, evident by the fact that each one of them attempted the two questions.
10. Thus, the contention that the direction for the two questions requiring the same to be answered in Rajasthani language fouled the advertisement is noted and rejected. The paper No.IV was for language i.e. Hindi and English. Clause (C) of the advertisement (5 of 5) [SAW-324/2017] applies. It clearly records that qua a language paper the candidate could be required to answer a question in the language concerned.
11. Regarding the first contention urged, the answer has already been given by us while dealing with the second contention urged. Technically it may be correct that under the Constitution, Rajasthani as a language has not been enlisted but understood from a common sense point of view, any person would understand that it would be in dialect of the devnagari script which is spoken of in the different regions in Rajasthan, for example in marwar area the language is marwari and in mewad it is mewadi etc.
12. We terminate our opinion by affirming the view taken by the learned Single Judge and simply highlight that neither appellant was handicapped by any alleged ambiguity which could possibly arise, for the reason each one of them has attempted the two questions in dispute in the dialect spoken of in Rajasthan.
13. The appeals are dismissed.
(DINESH MEHTA),J (PRADEEP NANDRAJOG),CJ
Parmar
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