Whether President of Municipal Committee can be removed on non-holding of matriculation recognized by a particular institute or board? HC replies (Read Judgment)

The Punjab & Haryana High Court Bench comprising Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Justice Vivek Puri in the case titled Kanwar Singh v. State of Haryana and Others dated 15-9-2021 gives their opinion on whether President of Municipal Committee can be removed from the post on the ground that he does not hold matriculation recognized by a particular institute or board?

Facts of the case

Petitioner was declared elected as President of Municipal Committee, Dharuhera. One Sh. Sandeep Bohra along with others filed a petition in the office of the second respondent alleging that the petitioner had incurred a disqualification at the time of election under Section 13-A (1) (h) of Haryana Municipal Act,1973 as he had not passed the Matriculation examination or its equivalent examination from any recognized institution/board.

The findings of the inquiry report are even though the Matriculation certificate produced by the petitioner had been issued by the Central Board of Higher Education (Uttam Nagar), New Delhi but the same could not be seen as a valid qualification since any examination conducted by the Central Board of Higher Education, New Delhi was not recognized equivalent to the same category of the examination conducted by the Haryana School Education Board nor was it included in the list of the same category of the Board. Seeing the inquiry report the second respondent removed the petitioner from the post of President, Municipal Committee taking a view that the petitioner had incurred a disqualification.

Submission of the petitioner:

The petitioner has submitted that the petitioner had passed his Matriculation in 1981 from the Central Board of Higher Education at Uttam Nagar, New Delhi and which is a recognized board. It is contended that as per Section 13-A (1) (h) of the Act the requirement is of possessing an educational qualification of Matriculation or its equivalent from a recognized institution/board and which the petitioner fulfills. Under the statutory provision there was no requirement that the qualification should be from a particular institution/board and to be recognized by the Haryana School Education Board.

Court’s observation and Judgement:

The Bench opined that “as per language of the provision there is no stipulation or requirement of the matriculation qualification being from any particular institute or board. If the legislature wanted to incorporate such requirement of possessing matriculation from any particular board or to treat such qualification valid only if it is recognized by the Haryana School Education Board then the language of the provision would have been differently worded.”

The Bench further held that the “disqualification would apply only if the petitioner had not passed the matriculation or its equivalent from any recognized institution/board. So long the petitioner held the matriculation qualification from any recognized institution or board the disqualification under Section 13-A (1) (h) would not be attracted.”

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