Delhi High Court: A petition was filed by the petitioner against the reply/rejection dated 27-12-2022 written by the respondents, whereby the petitioner’s candidature for appointment to the post of Assistant Commandant (General Duty) in Indian Coast Guard was canceled. A division bench of Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Sharma, JJ., directed the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner for appointment with 02/2023 batch, but having the seniority and consequential benefits of 01/2023 batch and in case no vacancy is available, respondents are directed to create one seat for petitioner with 01/2023 batch.
The petitioner was a final year student of graduation course who applied for the post of Assistant Commandant (General Duty) in Indian Coast Guard under un-reserved category wherein he was selected for Stage 1, 2 and 3. Meanwhile, he also received his original Provisional Degree Certificate. He was declared as was informed having been declared ‘unfit’ due to being ‘overweight’. The petitioner qualified medicals by reducing 15 kgs in 42 days but was not declared selected in the final list.
Being aggrieved, petitioner’s father vide representation dated 16.12.2022 to the Director General of Indian Coast Guard prayed for inclusion of petitioner’s name in the select list. Vide letter dated 27.12.2022, the respondents informed petitioner’s father that petitioner’s candidature was rejected because at the time of filling-up the application form, petitioner was in fifth semester and not in sixth semester/final semester. Hence, he did not meet the minimum educational qualification as prescribed in Para 4 (a) of the advertisement. Thus, the present petition was filed.
The Court noted that the respondents did not check the qualification status of the petitioner during various stages of examination, especially when respondents asserted that the stage for verification of the documents was Stage-II examination. It is not the case that the petitioner has not been able to qualify for different stages of examination for the post in question. The petitioner’s strong determination to join the Force is established by the fact that he lost 15 kgs in 42 days with utmost dedication to qualify the Stage IV i.e., Medical by the respondents and he was declared successful.
Placing reliance on Charles K. Skaria v. Dr. C. Mathew, (1980) 2 SCC 752 and Dolly Chhanda v. Chairman, JEE, (2005) 9 SCC 779, the Court observed that appointments for batch 01/2023 have already been done and all seats have already been filled, however, the interest of justice would be met if one seat for the petitioner is created with the batch 01/2023.
Thus, the Court allowed the petition and directed the respondent to consider the case of the petitioner for an appointment with 02/2023 batch, but having the seniority and consequential benefits of 01/2023 batch and in case no vacancy is available, respondents are directed to create one seat for petitioner with 01/2023 batch.
[Vinayak Sharma v. Indian Coast Guard, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 3760, decided on 03-07-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Mr. Virendra Goswami, Mr. Abhinay Sharma, Mr. Mayank Tushamar, Mr. L.K. Srivastava & Ms. Parul Khurana, Advocates for the Petitioner;
Mr. Pavan Narang, Senior Panel Counsel with Mr. Himanshu Sethi & Ms. Aishwarya Chhabra, Advocates Ms. Aakanksha Kaul & Ms. Versha Singh, Advocates Ms. Archana Kumari, Advocate for the Respondents.
