Delhi High Court
Swadeep Kumar vs Allahabad Bank & Anr on 20 December, 2016
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) No. 8470/2016
% 20th December, 2016
SWADEEP KUMAR ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Subhasish Mohanty, Advocate.
versus
ALLAHABAD BANK & ANR ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Advocate for R-1.
Mr. Jagat Arora, Advocate for R-2.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VALMIKI J.MEHTA
To be referred to the Reporter or not?
VALMIKI J. MEHTA, J (ORAL)
1. By this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of
India the petitioner challenges the action of the respondents in denying
employment to the petitioner to the post of SWO-A (Clerical Cadre) - IV in
the respondent no. 1/Allahabad Bank. Respondent no. 2 is the Institute of
Banking Personnel Selection and which conducts examination with respect
to employments in public sector banks such as respondent no. 1/Allahabad
Bank.
2. There is a very limited issue which is called for decision in this
writ petition as to whether petitioner who was considered for employment
under Ex-servicemen category is or is not bound by paragraph „V‟ of the
advertisement and the relevant recruitment Rules which provide that a
candidate besides obtaining minimum total score must also have a minimum
score in each test papers. This paragraph „V‟ pertaining to the subject
recruitment process reads as under:-
"V. Cut Off Score
Each candidate will be required to obtain a minimum score in each test and
also a minimum total score to be considered to be shortlisted for interview.
Depending on member of the State/UT wise vacancies available cutoffs will
be decided and candidates will be shortlisted for interview. Prior to the
completion of the interview process, scores obtained in the online
examination will not be shared with the candidates shortlisted for interview."
3. So far as the petitioner is concerned, his marks chart is given as
Annexure R-1 to the counter affidavit filed by the respondent no. 2 and the
same reads as under:-
"
FIELD NAME
REGISTRATION NO 1350522509 CUT - OFFS
ROLL NO 1561339683
NAME SWADEEP KUMAR
STATE _ APPLIED DELHI DELHI
CATEGORY OBC - EXS GENERAL
COMBINED 44.80 70.60
_SCORE_OUT_OF _100
ALLOTTED _ OBC-EXS
CATEGORY
T1_NA = NUMERICAL ABILITY.
T2_CK = COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE.
T3_EL = ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
T4_RE = REASONING.
T5_GA = GENERAL AWARENESS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE BANKING INDUSTRY."
4. It is seen from the aforesaid chart that there were a total of five
test papers, i.e., T-1 to T-5, and though petitioner has obtained the necessary
minimum marks for passing in papers T-1, T-2, T-4 and T-5, the petitioner
however could not obtain the minimum marks for the paper T-3 which were
10, inasmuch as, petitioner had obtained lower marks being „8‟. Therefore,
once the petitioner has failed to clear the examination process by failing to
obtain minimum marks for all and each of the tests, inasmuch as, petitioner
has not obtained minimum marks of 10 for the T-3 paper, petitioner hence
cannot claim that he has cleared the selection process and therefore should
not be appointed.
5. Learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that respondents
are bound by Ex-Servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and
Posts) Rules, 1979, however, nothing has been pointed out to this Court as
to how these Rules would be binding on public sector banks such as the
respondent no. 1 herein.
6. Counsel for the petitioner then sought to draw the attention of
this Court to the subject advertisement as per which some of the provisions
of the Ex-Servicemen Rules were applicable, and accordingly it is claimed
that the Rules as a whole must apply. However I cannot agree to this
argument because the advertisement limits the application of the Ex-
Servicemen Rules only with respect to certain aspects pertaining to
relaxation of age, etc and this becomes clear from the following portion of
the advertisement issued for subject recruitment process:-
"(iv) The following rules applicable to Ex-Servicemen re-employed under
the Central government would apply to Ex-Servicemen candidates
appearing for the CWE:
(i) Ex-Servicemen candidates who have already secured employment
under the Central Government in Group „C‟ and „D‟ will be
permitted the benefit of age relaxation as prescribed for Ex-
Servicemen for securing another employment in a higher grade or
cadre in Group „C‟/ „D‟ under the Central Government. However,
such candidates will not be eligible for the benefit of reservation for
Ex-Servicemen in Central Government jobs.
(ii) An ex-Servicemen who has once joined a Government job on civil
side after availing of the benefits given to him/her as an Ex-
Servicemen for his/her re-employment his/her Ex-Servicemen status
for the purpose of the re-employment in Government jobs ceases.
(iii) Candidates who are still in the Armed Forces and desirous of applying
under Ex-Servicemen category whose date of completion of specific
period of engagement (SPE) is completed only year from the last date
for receipt of online application i.e. on or before 31.08.2015 are
eligible to apply."
7. It is therefore seen that as per the advertisement there is no
benefit to be given to an Ex-serviceman that such an Ex-serviceman even if
he fails to obtain less than the minimum score for one of the papers/tests,
yet, such a person should be appointed. Therefore, I cannot agree with the
argument urged on behalf of the petitioner that since the petitioner is an Ex-
serviceman he need not obtain the minimum marks for all the papers and
which admittedly was a condition for recruitment.
8. The present writ petition is dismissed accordingly.
DECEMBER 20, 2016 VALMIKI J. MEHTA, J
AK
