SANJIV KHANNA,J. - (1.) Leave granted in Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 4562 of 2012.
(2.) Predicament of candidates consequent to conflicting opinions in different decisions of the High Court on true and correct interpretation of principle of prospective overruling as directed in Kailash Chand Sharma vs. State of Rajasthan and Ors, (2002) 6 SCC 562 is the cause of this agonising and festering litigation since 1999. This "scarecrow" of a litigation, to use the words of Charles Dickens, "in course of time, [has] become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means."
(3.) Award of bonus marks to candidates seeking appointment to the post of Primary School Teachers in Zila Parishad of various districts in the State of Rajasthan during the year 1998-99 was struck down and declared unconstitutional by a Full Bench of the Rajasthan High Court vide judgment dated November 18, 1999 in Kailash Chand Sharma v. State of Rajasthan in W.P.(C) No. 3928 of 1998, for the reason that any kind of weightage and advantage in public employment in a State service is not permissible on the ground of place of birth, residence or on the ground of being a resident of urban or rural area. The Full Bench in Kailash Chand Sharma's case (supra) had followed an earlier Full Bench judgment in Deepak Kumar Suthar and Another v. State of Rajasthan and Others, (1999) 2 Rajasthan Law Reporter 692 wherein similar stipulations for grant of bonus marks in selection of Grade II and Grade III teachers in the state cadre were struck down as unconstitutional. However, in Deepak Kumar Suthar's case (supra), no consequential and substantive relief was granted to the writ petitioners therein as first, they did not have a chance of selection on merits even if award of bonus marks to successful candidates was disregarded and secondly, the candidates so selected had not been impleaded as parties. Accordingly, the Full Bench in Deepak Kumar Suthar's case (supra), in the concluding paragraph, had given the following directions: "44. Instead of sending the matter to the appropriate bench, we think it proper to dispose of this petition with a direction that no relief can be granted to the petitioners as they could not succeed to get the place in the merit list even by getting 10 bonus marks being residents of urban area, for which they are certainly not entitled. More so, the petitioners have not impleaded any person from the select list, not even the last selected candidate. Thus, no relief can be granted to them in spite of the fact that the appointments made in conformity of the impugned Circular have not been in consonance with law. However, we clarify that any appointment made earlier shall not be affected by this judgment and it would have prospective application." ;