Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 26: Giving major relief to the candidates appearing in written test for the posts of Naib-Tehsildars, High Court has set-aside the notification so far it relates to publication of syllabus with regard to descriptive test in Urdu subject.
After hearing Advocate Abhinav Sharma and Senior Advocate DC Raina with Advocate Anuj Dewan Raina in a bunch of petitions, Justice Tashi Rabstan observed, “Supreme Court has held that Government cannot be permitted to say that it will give jobs or benefits only in favour of those having grey hair or belonging to a particular political party or professing a particular religious faith or practising a particular or special activity”.
“The Government cannot act arbitrarily. It does not stand in the same position as a private individual. Whenever any Governmental action fails to satisfy the test of reasonableness and public interest, it is liable to be struck down as invalid. A necessary corollary of this proposition is that the Government cannot act in a manner which would benefit a particular set of persons or party. Such an action will be contrary to public interest”, Justice Rabstan said.
He further observed, “in the present case, Service Selection Board has not produced any document by virtue of which Government has issued any instructions giving power to the Board to publish separate syllabus for the Urdu subject to be conducted in descriptive type test earmarking 30 marks for it. However, the only requirement as per the rules is Graduation with knowledge of Urdu. The knowledge of Urdu is not defined in the rules itself. Therefore, publishing of separate test is violation of rules as well as mandate of Articles 14 and 16 of Constitution of India”.
With these observations, Justice Tashi Rabstan set-aside the impugned Notification No.01 of 2015 dated 07.04.2015 so far it relates to publication of syllabus with regard to descriptive test in Urdu subject.
The SSB vide Advertisement Notice No.1 of 2015 dated 7th of April, 2015 invited applications for various posts of State/ Divisional/District Cadres including 134 posts of Naib Tehsildar.
As per Advertisement Notice, minimum qualification prescribed for the post of Naib Tehsildar is Graduate with knowledge of Urdu. Petitioners being fully eligible applied for the posts of Naib Tehsildars in pursuance of notification. Petitioners contend that Advertisement Notification itself does not specify as to of which standard, such knowledge of Urdu is required to be possessed by the petitioners and there is no practice of including Urdu in the descriptive type test.
In terms of Notice dated 31.07.2015 the Board published syllabus for written test for the posts in question, wherein besides other stipulations, 30 marks were earmarked for descriptive test in Urdu.
It is contended that in terms of notice dated 31.07.2015, respondents-authority has, for the first time, in violation of earlier notifications as well as other criteria, kept a separate written test for the subject Urdu, which has the effect on contesting persons without Urdu as a subject, which is against the mandate of Articles 14 and 16 of Constitution of India.
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