Delhi High Court
Meena Yadav vs Govt. Of Nct Of Delhi And Ors. on 7 October, 2002
Author: Manmohan Sarin
Bench: Manmohan Sarin
JUDGMENT Manmohan Sarin, J.
1. Petitioner has filed this writ petition, seeking a direction that the respondents should consider her candidature in the OBC category and not in the General category and declare the result of the examination accordingly.
2. Pursuant to an advertisement issued on 21.9.2000, petitioner applied for the vacancy of the post of a primary teacher in MCD and NDMC. Petitioner while filling up the form for the Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board, gave her category as "General". The Admit Card was issued to the petitioner on the basis of General category. The forms were issued on 21.9.2000 and the last date for submission of the form was 9.10.2000.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the requirement of the Board that application should be accompanied with certificate of OBC was almost an impossible one to abide by as the certificate is not available to be filed along with the application form.
4. Petitioner claims that she in fact was a OBC category applicant. However, since she was not possessed of the certificate, she had filled the category as general. Be that as it may, petitioner's form, as submitted, and the admit card, as issued, were for General category. Petitioner subsequently on 8.3.2001, requested for a change from "General" to "OBC" category on the basis of a certificate, as obtained and furnished. Petitioner claims that there was no action taken on this. The case of the petitioner was processed as a General candidate.
5. The petitioner has not qualified on the basis of General category but would have a chance, if treated as an OBC candidate.
6. The question arising for consideration is whether the petitioner is permitted to change the category before the results are finalised and processed and whether she is entitled to have her result declared under the OBC category. I am afraid, the answer to this is in the negative. The explanation of the petitioner that since the certificate was not available, she gave a declaration of being in the "General" category instead of "OBC" is hardly convincing or credible and does not inspire any confidence. Not only this, one of the instructions of the Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board is as under:-
"S.C. and OBC candidate must furnish certificate issued by the Competent Authority Govt. of NCT of Delhi only issued on or before the closing date of receipt of application form."
7. It is not in dispute that the petitioner did not submit the OBC certificate along with the application form. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that similar condition has been held to be bad in case of Tej Pal Singh and Ors. v. Government of NCT of Delhi and Anr. reported at 2000 (3) All India Services Law Journal. In my view, this would not make any material difference. In Tejpal Singh and Ors. v. Government of NCT of Delhi and Anr. (Supra), the petitioner had claimed to be a SC candidate and it was only the inability to furnish the certificate along with the application form. The Court held that the benefit of SC candidature should not be denied on account of late issuance of SC certificate. The present case is distinguishable, as in the instant case, petitioner applied for and claimed to be a general candidature. Not only this, petitioner had sworn a declaration, stating that the particulars furnished by her were correct and that she belonged to the General category. It would be for the petitioner to utilise in future, if permissible, the OBC Certificate, which the petitioner has subsequently obtained. As far as the present case is concerned, no ground is made out for permitting the petitioner to change the declaration and specially in view of there being no convincing or credible explanation as to why in the first instance application was made General category.
The writ petition has no merit and is dismissed.