Allahabad High Court
Dr Ratna Singh vs State Of U.P. And 2 Others on 9 August, 2023
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:160068 Court No. - 35 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 10129 of 2023 Petitioner :- Dr Ratna Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Akhilesh Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C,Krishna Raj Singh Jadaun Hon'ble Vikas Budhwar,J.
In Re: Amendment Application No. 3 of 2023 Learned counsel for the applicant/ petitioner seeks to withdraw the amendment application.
Learned counsel for the respondents have no objection to the same.
Accordingly, the amendment application is dismissed as withdrawn.
In Re: Writ Petition The instructions filed today are taken on record and marked as 'Appendix-A'.
Heard Sri Akhilesh Tripathi, learned counsel for the writ petitioner as well as Sri Shailendra Singh, learned Standing Counsel, who appears for the Respondent no.1 and Sri K.R. Singh Jadaun, learned counsel for the Respondents 2 and 3 University.
The case of the writ petitioner is that the writ petitioner is armed with the relevant qualifications, degrees in M.A., Ph.D. and Post Doctoral Fellowship. As per the writ petitioner, the respondents-University initiated the recruitment by virtue of Advertisement dated 06.05.2021 for the filling up various posts of Assistant Professors including 1 post of Ancient History, Archaeology and Culture. It is the further case of the writ petitioner that the selections to the said posts are governed under the provisions of the notification of the University Grants Commission dated 18.07.2018 by the name and style of "UGC REGULATIONS ON MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS AND OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES AND MEASURES FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, 2018". Though the petitioner had applied and he was fully eligible and qualified for being accorded selection and appointment on the post of Assistant Professor in Ancient History, but post-selections, the same was cancelled on the ground that the written examination was not conducted in English medium. Thereafter again, the selection exercise stood commenced and the writ petitioner participated in the Written Examination held on 26.02.2023. As per the writ petitioner, he secured 32 marks out of 40 marks.
The grievance of the petitioner is that he has not been called for interview.
Prayer in the present petition is for a direction to the authorities to declare the API Score of all the candidates in the subject Ancient History, Archaeology and Culture for the post of Assistant Professor who have applied pursuant to Advertisement No.315/T-3/Gen Admin/2021 dated 06.05.2021 and to invite the writ petitioner to participate in the interview on the basis of the API Score.
This Court had entertained the writ petition on 12.06.2023.
A short counter affidavit has been filed by the Registrar, Deendayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur dated 11.07.2023, in which in paragraph-5, it is being sought to be contended that in the selections, the last candidate called for interview had obtained 115 marks, which is cut off marks, whereas petitioner had obtained total marks (API + Objective Examination) (104) and he is at Sl. No. 20 in the merit list.
This Court on 03.08.2023 required Sri Jadaun, who appears for the Respondents-University, to seek further instructions.
Today, Sri Jadaun has produced before this Court a document dated 07.08.2023 issued under signature of the competent authority of the University, wherein in so far as the petitioner is concerned his API Score has been shown to be 70 and Objective Marks being 34 totalling to 104 marks, which is below the cut off marks, i.e. 115.
Confronted with the said situation, Sri Tripathi, who appears for the writ petitioner submits that the entire action of the University is under cloud, as though the API marks were disclosed in the website with respect to various disciplines for the post of Assistant Professor, but with respect to the Ancient History, it was not disclosed. He further submits that there has been some activity surreptitiously done in this regard. He then submits that at this stage, he seeks to withdraw the writ petition, as according to him, he is conscious about the fact that some third party rights have already been accrued and with additional inputs, which he would be taken as per the relevant provisions of law, he would file another writ petition with better particulars in that regard.
To such submission, learned Standing Counsel as well as Sri Jadaun, who appears for the Respondents-University have no objection.
Considering the submission of the rival parties as well as stand taken by them, the writ petition is rendered infructuous. The same is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to the writ petitioner to approach this Court as and when it may be advised in accordance with law with better particulars.
Order Date :- 9.8.2023 N.S.Rathour