Above 10+2 will not be eligible for Class-IV: CAT

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 28: A Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has held that candidates having qualification above 10+2 will not be eligible for Class-IV posts.
While upholding the condition No. 6 (iii) of the Advertisement Notice No. 01 of 2020 dated 26.06.2020 issued by JKSSB which prescribes the criteria for direct recruitment to said post as “Minimum Matric and Maximum 10 + 2”, a Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal comprising Judicial Member Rakesh Sagar Jain and Administrative Member Anand Mathur observed, “the criteria is justified and is a conscious decision”.
“The Government by way of Special Recruitment Rules and SRO 99 of 2008 which is statutory law has prescribed a standard of minimum and maximum educational criteria which finds mention in the instant Advertisement Notice and it further provides that no candidate having qualification other than prescribed shall be eligible for Class IV posts”, the CAT said.
“In view of the settled law, looking to the nature of the post and administrative exigencies, it is for the Government (employer) to settle the qualifications for a post and not for the Tribunal to consider and dislodge the criteria prescribed by the employer (Government) unless it is violative of law”, the CAT further said, adding “in the present case the contention of the applicants that a candidate, possessing a Graduate/Post Graduate degree, which includes within itself 10+2 qualification, cannot be excluded by the respondents from the zone of eligibility for the Class IV posts, has no force of law”.
Had the intention of the Government to lay the Class IV posts, free and open to all persons having educational qualification more than 10+2, there would be no need to mention a maximum qualification. “It is the prerogative of the user department to stipulate the qualifications for the posts, in their establishment. The concerned authority has its own purpose or objective in prescribing qualifications of a particular description, for the concerned post”, the CAT said, adding “once the qualifications prescribed in the advertisement are treated as essential, there is no way to ignore them and the Tribunal cannot in judicial review interfere with it unless it is made out to be violative of the Constitution”.