Alok Dutta vs State Of West Bengal & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 1348 Cal

S/L 15
11.02.2021
Court No.26
SD
                              WPA 3724 of 2021
                            (Via Video Conference)

                                    Alok Dutta
                                         Vs.
                             State of West Bengal & Ors.


              Mr. Ekramul Bari
              Ms. Tanuja Basak
              Mr. Siddhartha Sankar Mondal
                                                   ... for the Petitioners.

              Mr. Supriyo Chattopadhyay
              Ms. Iti Dutta
                                                        ... for the State.

              Mr. Sakya Maity
                                            ... for the Respondent No.4.

This is an application under Article 226 of the

Constitution of India wherein the writ petitioner is seeking

condoning the age bar for the post of Clerk of the school

concerned.

It is to be noted that the petitioner has been working

in the said school from 2007 till date. The present

advertisement calling for selection of the post of Clerk has an

age limit of 40 years. Unfortunately, the petitioner is 42

years old and does not qualify as per the advertisement.

Mr. Ekramul Bari, counsel appearing on behalf of the

petitioner submits that in cases where a person is working

with the institution, normally the institution condones the

age limit bar. To buttress his argument, he places reliance

on the Larger Bench judgment of this High Court in

Gobinda Chandra Mondal vs. Principal, Rabindra

Mahavidyalaya reported in (2013) 1 CHN 9. The

relevant portion of the judgment is extracted below:-

"27. If the appointment is made without undertaking selection procedure under Rule on ad hoc or temporary basis engaging the candidates having requisite qualification namely age and education at the time of appointment against substantive post the candidates in those cases shall be allowed to compete and/or participate in the selection process along with other eligible candidates at the time of regular recruitment process condoning the age as they have acquired right to be considered."

I have also heard the counsel appearing on behalf of

the School and he has fairly submitted that the case of the

petitioner may be considered as he has faithfully served for

the last 14 years.

In light of the same, the school authorities are

directed to condone the age limit bar in the case of the

petitioner keeping in mind the service put in by the

petitioner and allow him to participate in the selection

process.

With the above observations, this writ petition is

disposed of.

Since, no affidavit-in-opposition has been called for

the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to have

not been admitted by the respondents.

There will be no order as to costs.

Photostat plain copy of this order duly counter-signed

by the Assistant Registrar (Court) be handed over to the

parties on usual undertaking.

(Shekhar B. Saraf, J.)