3 years on, Haryana told to complete selections

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 15

More than three years after the State of Haryana advertised 626 posts of post graduate teachers in Sanskrit, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the government to go ahead and complete the process.

The result of the selection process could not be declared following litigation and a “large number of posts lying vacant”.

The Bench of Justice AB Chaudhari and Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill made it clear that fresh advertisement for post turning vacant since then would also be issued after the declaration of the result as undertaken by the government.

The candidates, who had applied pursuant to advertisement dated June 28, 2015, would not be debarred from consideration on the grounds of age limit, again as stated before the Court, provided they were otherwise qualified and did not suffer from any disqualification. 

The ruling came on a bunch of petitions filed by Sunita Rani against the State of Haryana and other respondents. Entertaining a petition, the court, vide order dated August 5, 2016, had directed the Haryana Government to revisit the aspect regarding “equivalence of qualification of MA Sanskrit/Acharya and BEd/Shiksha Shastri/language teachers course/Oriental training”.

Pursuant to the direction, the Haryana Government issued a notification, dated June 23, 2017, and notified Haryana State Education School Cadre (Group B) Service (Amendment) Rules, 2017. The Court then found that equivalence had been made as per the amended rules.

The Bench added that the challenge, after the amendment to the rule, was that it was required to be read retrospectively and not prospectively. The Bench noted that Haryana Advocate-General Baldev Raj Mahajan’s stand in the matter was that the amendment was prospective and not retrospective.

Mahajan told the Bench during the course of the hearing that several posts had turned vacant because of retirement after the amendment to the rule with effect from June 23, 2017. The candidates would definitely be considered in the light of the amended rule, if they were otherwise eligible, within two months from the result of the selection process pursuant to the June, 2015, advertisement.