Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Punjab National Bank & Ors vs Ramesh Prasad Das on 3 March, 2022
06.
03.03.2022.
Ct. No. 11.
F.B.
FMA 70 of 2022
with
IA No. CAN 1 of 2022
(Via Video Conference)
Punjab National Bank & Ors.
-Vs.-
Ramesh Prasad Das
Mr. Pankaj Kumar Mukherjee,
Mr. Subir Bera
..... For the Appellants.
Mr. Soumya Majumder,
Mr. Sunil Gupta,
Mr. Dipanjan Biswas
.....For the Respondent.
This is an appeal against the order passed by
the Hon'ble Single Judge in WPA 15895 of 2021 dated
13.12.2021. The Punjab National Bank had advertised
for filling up the post of Clerk through the Common
Recruitment Process on 1st September, 2020. The writ
petitioner being the Ex-Serviceman had applied for the
said post under ST Category. The writ petitioner had
participated in the selection process and was selected
for the said post. After the selection, the writ petitioner
was asked to produce the certificate but the writ
petitioner had produced the certificate of Scheduled
Castes instead of Scheduled Tribe. The said matter was
taken up with the competent authority and the writ
petitioner was not allowed to join the service as the
petitioner has participated in the recruitment process
for the post of Clerk under Scheduled Tribe Category
and not Scheduled Castes Category. The petitioner has
submitted his detailed representation explaining that
inadvertently it was mentioned as ST instead of SC and
requested for correction of the same as SC. Inspite of
the request of the petitioner the Bank has not
considered the same and name of the appellant was
deleted from the list. Being aggrieved with the act of
the authority, the appellant had preferred the writ
application.
The Hon'ble Single Judge while disposing of the
writ application directed the Punjab National Bank to
consider the case of the writ petitioner as a candidate
under the Ex-Serviceman Category belonging to SC
Category on the basis of the marks obtained by the
petitioner in the examination if the writ petitioner's
certificate under SC Category confirms the requirement
of advertisement.
The Learned Single Judge has further clarified
that this order is only in respect of the writ petitioner
and shall not be construed as precedent in respect of
any other person who has appeared in the special
selection process.
Learned Counsel for the appellant submitted
that the Hon'ble Single Judge has passed the impugned
order without considering the fact that, the same will
lead to the opening of floodgates as more candidates
will approach different Courts all over country with
similar plea.
This Court considered the rival submissions of
the parties and the judgment impugned. It appears
from the record that out of 257 vacancies under SC
Categories, 219 vacancies have been filled up. Similarly
under ST Category out of 63 only 48 vacancies have
filled up. It appears from the record that out of 142
vacancies reserved for Ex-Serviceman under horizontal
reservation 134 vacancies have been filled up. Out of
total vacancies of 1193 only 1008 vacancies have been
filed up till date. It appears from record that total
vacancies are unfilled. The vacancies under SC and ST
Categories have also not been filled up. The horizontal
reservation under Ex-Serviceman has not been
exhausted.
This Court also observed that if the case of the
writ petitioner is considered under SC Category, none of
the selected candidates will be prejudiced.
The Learned Single Judge has passed the order
keeping in view, the unfilled vacancies and that no one
belonging to same category to that of the petitioner
having obtained higher marks than the petitioner will
be effected.
In view of the above, this Court is of the
considered view that Learned Single Judge has not
committed any error by directing the Punjab National
Bank for consideration of the case of the writ petitioner
under Ex-Serviceman belonging to SC Category on the
basis of the marks obtained by the writ petitioner in the
examination if the petitioner produced the certificate of
SC Category conforms the requirement of the
advertisement.
In view of the above, we do not find any illegality
in the order passed by the Hon'ble Single Bench dated
13.12.2021. We also agreed that this order shall not be
construed as precedent in respect of any other person
who has appeared in the subject selection process.
MAT 70 of 2022 with IA No. CAN 1 of 2022 is
thus disposed of.
Affidavit-of-Service filed in Court today be kept
with the record.
All parties to act in terms of the copy of the
order downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Krishna Rao, J.) (Subrata Talukdar, J.)
