Andhra Pradesh High Court - Amravati

P Murali vs The Commissioner And Director on 9 June, 2022

           THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE RAVI NATH TILHARI

                 WRIT PETITION No.2820 of 2021

JUDGMENT:-

1.    Heard Sri P.V.Krishnaiah, learned counsel for the petitioners

and Sri Aswath Narayan, learned Government Pleader for Services-

I for the respondents.

2. This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of

India has been filed for the following relief:

"In the circumstances, it is therefore, prayed that the Hon'ble High Court may be pleased to grant appropriate relief more in the nature of Writ of Mandamus under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, declaring fourteen (14) Proceedings, i.e. 1) Proceedings in Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-6 dated 12.01.2020, 2) Proceedings in Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-9 dated 12.01.2020, 3) Proceedings in Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-

       10     dated         12.01.2020,        4)         Proceedings      in
       Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-12              dated        12.01.2020,     5)
       Proceedings     in      Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-5                 dated

12.01.2020, 6) Proceedings in Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-

       11     dated         12.01.2020,        7)         Proceedings      in
       Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-2              dated        12.01.2020,      8)
       Proceedings     in      Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-8                 dated

12.01.2020, 9) Proceedings in Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-

       1     dated       12.01.2020,         10)          Proceedings      in
       Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-7              dated        12.01.2020,     11)
       Proceedings     in      Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-4                 dated
       12.01.2020,              12)               Proceedings              in
       Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-3              dated        12.01.2020,     13)
       Proceedings     in     Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-48                 dated
       12.01.2020,              14)               Proceedings              in

Roc.No.20026/8/2020/A1-17 dated 12.01.2020 issued by the 1st respondent as arbitrary, illegal, discriminatory, malafide, unconstitutional violating Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, apart from violating principles of natural justice, and set aside the same, and issue consequential direction directing the respondents to

forthwith appoint the petitioners as Ward Welfare and Development Secretary, (Grade-II) in their respective districts on par with the candidates who got lower merit, ranking with effect from the date of their appointment, i.e. 30.09.2019 (joined on 02.10.2019), with all consequential benefits including seniority, arrears of salary etc., and pass such other order or orders as are deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case."

3. Pursuant to the notification No.6/2019 of the Municipal

Administration Department, Guntur, dated 26.07.2019, calling

applications from the eligible candidates for the post of Ward

Welfare and Development Secretary (Grade-II) in urban local

bodies, the petitioners applied for the said post. The authorities

allowed the petitioners to participate in the selection process by

issuing the hall tickets and the petitioners appeared in the

examination held on 08.09.2019. At the time of verification of the

petitioners original certificates, the petitioners were told and they

did not possess the requisite qualification for appointment to the

post of Ward Welfare and Development Secretary (Grade-II), as the

petitioners possess the degree in Commerce, which according to

the authorities did not fall under "Arts and Humanities".

4. The petitioner Nos.1 to 12 filed W.P.No.18928 of 2019,

petitioner No.13 filed W.P.No.18837 of 2019 and petitioner No.14

filed W.P.No.19323 of 2019, with main prayer to declare the action

of the respondents in refusal of appointment to the petitioners in

the post in question as illegal, arbitrary in violation of principles of

natural justice and unjustified.

5. The aforesaid writ petitions were disposed of finally granting

liberty to the petitioners to file a detailed representation before the

3rd respondent therein and if any such representation was filed, the

3rd respondent was directed to take appropriate action in

accordance with law within the specified period. The petitioners

thereafter filed representations which have been rejected by the 1st

respondent/the Commissioner and Director of Municipal

Administration, State of Andhra Pradesh, Guntur District vide

different proceeding numbers, all dated 12.01.2020 as impugned

in the present writ petition.

6. As per the decision taken by the 1st respondent, the

representation was examined in accordance with rules and

specifications of degrees published by University Grants

Commission Gazette No.27 of India vide notification dated

05.07.2014 forwarded by the Secretary, Andhra Pradesh State

Council of Higher Education and on such examination, it was

found that the individual had not possessed the requisite

educational qualification prescribed for the post of Ward Welfare

and Development Secretary (Grade-II). Consequently, the

petitioners representations were rejected.

7. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the

petitioners qualification of B.Com Degree is covered under the

"Arts and Humanities" as mentioned in the notification. He further

submits that the 1st respondent ought to have granted opportunity

to the petitioners to explain and demonstrate as to how the

petitioners were eligible and possess the requisite qualification. No

such opportunity was afforded before arriving at the confusion that

the petitioners did not possess the requisite qualification. The

petitioners were not provided opportunity to produce material to

show that their B.Com Degree was also covered under qualification

of Graduate in "Arts and Humanities". He submits that the

petitioners possess the material documents to show that the

petitioners possess the qualification which came under the

categories of "Arts and Humanities" as prescribed by the 1st

respondent in the notification. Those materials the petitioners

have disclosed in para No.16 of their petition as under:-

"1) Clarification given by the University Grants Commission

dated 16.01.2020.

2) Information given by the University Grants Commission

under RTI Act.

3) Proceedings in Rc.No.APSCHE/AC/Equivalence of

Degrees/2019 dated 09.10.2020 given by Andhra Pradesh

State Council of Higher Education.

4) Certificate in ANU/Academic/B.Com

Course/Clarification/2019 dated 27.12.2019 issued to the

Ahota Sudhakar Babu by Acharya Nagarjuna University.

5) Letter of Adikavi Nannaya University in

Lr.No.ANUR/Estt./511/2019/60 dated 26.09.2020 addressed

to the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Kakinada.

6) Proceedings in L.II (3)/B.Com/2019 dated 31.10.2019

issued by Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University.

7) Lr.No.Cl(2)/Equivalent/Degree Court/2020 dated

03.12.2020 addressed by the S.V.University to Sivara Murali.

8) Certificate of Board of Intermediate Education, Andhra

Pradesh, Vijayawada in Rc.No.SplE3/2019-20 dated

10.12.2019 issued to Shaik Masthan Valli."

8. The learned counsel for the petitioners further submits that

the impugned order mentions about the notification dated

05.07.2014 by the University Grants Commission Gazette No.27 of

India, but in view of the material annexed, the notification dated

05.07.2014 cannot be the sole determining factor. The respondent

No.1 has reached jumped conclusion without any reasons.

9. Learned counsel for the petitioners further submits that the

controversy as involved in the present writ petition is squarely

covered by the judgment of this Court in W.P.No.20371 of 2020

decided on 22.12.2020 and W.P.No.23514 of 2020 decided on

02.03.2022.

10. Sri Ashwath Narayan, learned Government Pleader for

Services-I for the respondents submits that the impugned orders

are perfectly legal and justified in view of the specification of

degrees published by University Grants Commission Gazette of

India vide notification dated 05.07.2014 as the courses mentioned

under Gazette No.27 dated 05.07.2014, would only be considered

as the eligible qualification of Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences.

B.Com is not mentioned as a specified degree under

Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences, but is mentioned under

Business Administration/Commerce/Management/Finance.

11. He further submits that the controversy involved herein is

not covered by the judgments of this Court in the above referred

W.P.No.20371 of 2020 and W.P.No.23514 of 2020.

12. I have considered the submissions advanced by the learned

counsels for the parties and perused the material on record.

13. The point for consideration is whether the petitioners B.Com

degree is covered under the requisite qualification of "A Graduate

in Arts and Humanities and above" for the post of Ward Welfare

and Development Secretary (Grade-II), as per the notification

No.6/2019, dated 26.07.2019.

14. The question if a specified qualification is equivalent to some

other specified qualification or is covered under some qualification

is a matter for assessment by the authorities of the field. Such

consideration and determination, however, is required to be made

on comparative assessment of both the courses i.e. „Commerce‟

and „Art and Humanities‟.

15. As per the documents annexed to the writ petition, a

certificate was issued from Acharya Nagarjuna University dated

27.12.2019 certifying the Bachelor of Commerce Degree to be

covered under the "Arts and Humanities" making such students

eligible for Government jobs. Similarly, Adikavi Nannaya

University also issued a certificate dated 26.09.2020 to the

Commissioner Municipal Corporation, Kakinada to the effect that

B.Com Degree comes under the "Arts and Humanities". Similarly,

the proceedings of the Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University dated

31.10.2019 shows that the B.Com Degree awarded by the Andhra

University is also considered under "Humanities and Social

Sciences stream".

16. The Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education,

through Secretary, vide Rc.No.APSCHE/AP/Equivalance of

Degrees/ 2019 dated 09.10.2020, furnished the information to the

Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration, Andhra

Pradesh which deserves reproduction as under:-

"It is further informed that the candidates, who got selected for the post of Ward Welfare and Development Secretary, have been relying on the fact that B.Com degree was shown under Humanities based on the Souvenir published by APSCHE and as per the letter issued by the UGC under RTI Act and insisting to consider their B.Com. Degree for the said post. Hence, the following are furnished hereunder.

(i) The Council published Souvenir in May, 2014, showing B.Com under Humanities prior to issuance of the UGC Regulations on 11-7-2014, which was shown under Humanities at that point of time.

(ii) The UGC in its Lr.No. F.No.4-5/2019 (RIA), while furnishing information under RTI in response to letter Dt:11.09.2020, the UGC has clarified that the Commerce subject was shown under Arts/ Humanities / Social Sciences when the scheme of Major Research Project was in operation. The extract of the UGC letter is furnished hereunder.

When the Scheme was in operation, as per the record, the following subjects were covered under arts/humanities/social/sciences under UGC Major Research Project Scheme.

Arabic, Archaeology, Assamese, Bengali, Buddhist Studies, Commerce, Defence Studies, Economics, Education, English, Fine Arts, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, History, Human Rights, Kannada, Law, Library Science, Linguistics, Malayalam, Management, Manipuri, Marathi, Mass Communication, Music, Oriya, Persian, Philosophy, Physical Education, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Punjabi, Rural Development, Russian, Sanskrit, Social Work, Sociology, Tamil, Telugu, Tourism, Urdu, Women Studies, etc.

(iii) The UGC clarification issue under RTI as discussed in point

(ii) above, do not override the UGC Regulations published in the Gazette dt. 5.7.2014.

In view of the above facts and flexibility shown by the UGC in grouping the subjects under Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences from time to time for award of degrees and Major Research Projects, the AP State Council of Higher Education is of the view that the Municipal Administration Department is required to take action on the following so as to resolve the grievances of the B.Com, Degree holders and to avoid litigations in the subject matter.

(i) to review the nature of the duties of the post of Ward welfare and Development Secretary with reference to the subjects studied by the candidates in B.Com and

(ii) to decide their suitability to discharge the duties of post of the Ward Welfare and Development Secretary, instead of relying totally on the grouping of subjects, and consider the candidature of the selected candidates duly the amending the existing Government Orders, wherever necessary."

The aforesaid information was furnished after taking due care of

the University Grants Commission regulations published in

Gazette dated 05.07.2014.

17. Besides the above, the Registrar, Sri Venkateswara

University, Tirupathi vide letter dated 03.12.2020 furnished

information that the B.Com Course of Sri Venkateswara University,

Tirupati comes under "Arts and Humanities" as per the Academic

Curriculum of Sri Venkateswara University for UG Course.

18. On the strength of those documents, though they do not

relate to the petitioners, it is submitted that even a B.Com Degree

could be covered under the qualification of "Arts and Humanities

and above" notified but the respondent No.1 did not take decision

on consideration of all aspects of the matter and simply mentioning

the notification dated 05.07.2014 passed the impugned order. The

petitioners were not given any opportunity of hearing in the

enquiry conducted by the 1st respondent. If they had been given

due opportunity they would have submitted the copy of the

documents as annexed to the petition for consideration of the

authority, but for want of any notice, the relevant documents could

not be submitted.

19. This Court finds that the conclusion has been recorded on

perusal of the notification dated 05.07.2014. But the enquiry has

not been conducted in a way it should have been conducted nor on

the moot point if B.Com is covered under "Arts and Humanities".

Merely saying that the petitioners are not qualified as they possess

B.Com Degree is not sufficient to disqualify them and particularly

when this Court finds that they have annexed so many documents

with the petition which atleast prima facie show that even with

respect to the degree of B.Com. it is certified by some universities

that the B.Com qualification falls in "Arts and Humanities".

20. This Court is not convinced with the submission of Sri

Aswath Narayana that the controversy involved in the present

petition is not covered by the judgments of this Court in

W.P.No.20371 of 2020 decided on 22.12.2020 and W.P.No.23514

of 2020 decided on 02.03.2022 respectively. In those cases also

pursuant to the same notification No.6/2019 dated 26.07.2019 for

the same post of Ward Welfare and Development Secretary (Grade-

II) with same qualification notified the same point was involved if

the B.Com Degree possessed by those petitioners fell under "Arts

and Humanities". There also the order rejecting the case of those

petitioners was found by this Court without reasons and to be a

jumped conclusion. Only distinction this Court finds is that in the

present case, the petitioners have been denied appointment

whereas the petitioners of those writ petitions were given

appointment which were cancelled later on. But, the ground in the

present case of not giving appointment and the ground in those

petitions for cancellation of the appointment, was the same that

the petitioners herein and also therein possessed the B.Com

Degree which did not fall under the qualification of "A graduate in

Arts and Humanities".

21. In W.P.No.20371 of 2020, decided vide judgment dated

22.12.2020 this Court held that the impugned orders therein did

not disclose any specific reason except the conclusion, no reason

was assigned. This Court held that the order must be a speaking

one and merely giving an opportunity of hearing is not enough.

The recording of reasons in support of a decision on a disputed

claim ensures that the decision is not a result of caprice whim or

fancy but was arrived at after considering the relevant law and that

decision was just. The said judgment was affirmed in Writ Appeal

No.291 of 2021 vide judgment dated 13.07.2021 re-affirming that

reasons in the context of those proceedings, having regard to the

nature of dispute, would mean the materials which the petitioners

had placed for consideration and the conclusions which were

derived from such consideration.

22. In W.P.No.23514 of 2020, decided on 02.03.2022, also this

Court found that the enquiry was not conducted in a way it should

have been conducted nor on the moot point if B.Com Degree is

covered under "Arts and Humanities" in correct perspective.

Following the judgment in W.P.No.20371 of 2020, this Court

passed the following order:-

"19. Consequently, the Writ Petition is allowed. The

impugned order dated 30.11.2019 is quashed. The respondent

No.4 shall make fresh enquiry into the educational qualification

of the petitioners to record specifically if their B.Com course is

covered under educational qualification of "Arts and

Humanities" as notified, on a comparative assessment of both

the courses, recording reasons for either way decision. The

petitioners are given liberty to submit the relevant documents,

as annexed with this petition and such other documents as they

consider to be relevant for determination of the above question,

before the respondent No.4, along with copy of this order for due

consideration.

20. Consequent upon such enquiry, if the petitioners'

educational qualification of B.Com is found to be covered under

"Arts and Humanities", the petitioners shall be appointed on the

post in question.