Jharkhand High Court
Sunny vs Union Of India on 28 March, 2018
Author: Rajesh Shankar
Bench: Rajesh Shankar
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
W.P. (C) No.1516 of 2018
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Sunny. .......... Petitioner.
-Versus-
1. Union of India, through its Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi.
2. Under Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Higher Education, Human Resource Development, New Delhi.
3. The Director-cum-National Coordinator, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (Telangana).
.......... Respondents.
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CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH SHANKAR
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For the Petitioner : Mr. Manoj Tandon, Advocate
For the respondents : J.C. to Mr. Rajiv Sinha, ASGI
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02/28.03.2018: Heard learned counsel for the parties.
2. The present writ petition has been filed for issuance of direction upon the respondents to allow the petitioner to participate and fill up the application form For Research in frontier areas of Science and Technology under the Prime Minister's Research Fellows (in short 'PMRF') pursuant to advertisement dated 23rd February, 2018 (Annexure-3) published in daily 'Times of India' (Mumbai Edition); and also for declaring that since the petitioner acquired his B.Tech Graduate Degree on 3rd August, 2013 from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli in Production Engineering, he is entitled for consideration For Research in frontier areas of Science and Technology under the PMRF as per the criteria mentioned in the advertisement dated 23rd February, 2018.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner acquired his B.Tech degree from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli in Production Engineering in 2013. The Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi floated a scheme for PMRF vide order dated 8th February, 2018. The said order contains certain guidelines providing inter alia that a maximum of 3000 meritorious students from IITs., IISc., IIITs., NITs. and IISERs. shall be selected in three batches starting from 2018-19 through a rigorous process and shall be provided direct admission into Ph.D. programmes in IITs. and IISc. to pursue research in frontier areas of science and technology with an -2- enhanced monthly fellowship. Pursuant to the said order dated 8th February, 2018, an advertisement was published on 23rd February, 2018 in daily 'Times of India' (Mumbai Edition), fixing time limit, which provides that application portal would open on 24th February, 2018 (10:00 a.m.) till 31st March, 2018 (5:00 p.m.) and the shortlisting would be done on 30th April, 2018, interviews would be held in May, 2018 and final selection list of the candidates would be published on 1st June, 2018. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the petitioner tried to upload his online application in the format provided on the portal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, which, inter alia, contains a caption "please select year of graduation" in which years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been mentioned, however, the year 2013 is missing in the said online application format. It is further submitted that since the year 2013 is not mentioned in the online application form, the petitioner is deprived of filling up his application, as he has passed B. Tech in the year 2013. Thereafter, the petitioner made a detailed representation on 28th February, 2018 before the Director- cum-National Coordinator, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad through speed post as also through e-mail, however, despite the best efforts of the petitioner, he is not able to fill up the online application form.
4. The main contention of the petitioner is that he has obtained B. Tech. Degree in Production Engineering, in the month of May, 2013 and, therefore, as per the eligibility criteria of the PMRF, the petitioner is eligible to make online application for the said fellowship. The eligibility criteria specifically mentioned in the advertisement dated 23rd February, 2018 is that the candidate should possess the degree of "B. Tech." Graduate (in last five years) or in the final year of B. Tech. or Integrated M. Tech./ Integrated M.Sc. in Science and Technology stream from IISc./IITs./NITs./IISERs./IIITs.
5. Since the petitioner has passed his B. Tech. examination from NIT, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu in the year 2013, he is coming within the ambit of the eligibility criteria. However, when the petitioner tried to fill up his online application form, the concerned portal displayed -3- the years of passing graduation only up to the year 2014. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, if "five years" is counted from the date of the advertisement, the same goes up to February, 2013 and, therefore, the petitioner despite having passed B.Tech examination in the year 2013 and also being eligible as per the eligibility criteria of PMRF has not been able to fill up the form.
6. I have perused the eligibility criteria mentioned in the advertisement (Annexure-3) and the copy of the online application form showing the concerned field. On comparative perusal of the eligibility criteria mentioned in the advertisement and the concerned field of the online portal, it transpires that the eligibility criteria mentioned in the advertisement to the effect that the B.Tech. Graduates (in last five years) are eligible for making the application has been treated to be the candidates who have passed their graduation examination in the year 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 i.e. to connote the word last five years, the current year 2018 has also been included. The interpretation made by the learned counsel for the petitioner that since from the date of advertisement, if previous five years are counted, the year 2013 comes within the same. I find no substance in the said submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner, particularly in view of the fact that the eligibility criteria mentioned in the advertisement to the extent that the B. Tech. Graduates (in the last five years) are eligible for making application has duly been interpreted and executed through the fields provided in the portal of online application by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, to mean that the five years would be the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (the current year).
7. Though the learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that there is an error on the part of the respondents in not including the year 2013 in the concerned portal for filling up online application, it is not the case of the petitioner that there is any software error. It is a settled law that the interpretation to an advertisement given by the concerned department of the State cannot be interpreted in a different manner as per the convenience of the candidate.
-4-8. In view of the aforesaid discussion, I am not inclined to entertain the prayer made in the present writ petition. The writ petition being devoid of merit is, accordingly, dismissed.
(Rajesh Shankar, J.) Sanjay/