RAJEEV SINGH,J. - (1.) Heard Shri S.C. Mishra, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri Rajendra Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri J.K. Sinha, learned Chief Standing Counsel assisted by Shri Manjiv Shukla, Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State.
(2.) This petition has been filed seeking a writ in the nature of certiorari quashing the impugned suspension and attachment order No. 498/37-3-2019- 7(32)/2012 dated 01.06.2019.
(3.) Brief facts, relevant for the purpose of the case, are that vide Government letter dated 27.08.2013, permission was accorded to the Director, Animal Husbandry Department, U.P. Lucknow, for recruitment on the post of Livestock Extension Officers under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Animal Husbandry Department Livestock Extension and Poultry Development Service Rules, 2002, as amended in the year 2013. In pursuance to the same, vacancies existing in each division were advertised on or on behalf of appointing authority, by the Additional Director Grade-II of the concerned division between 14 to 16 December, 2013 in newspapers having wide circulation. The examination is stated to have been held on 02.02.2014. Principal Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, convened a meeting of the appointing authorities of each division for working out the modalities for uniform evaluation of the answer sheets, in pursuance to which, the Director, Animal Husbandry Department U.P., Lucknow wrote a letter dated 21.02.2014 to the State Government for taking appropriate decision for evaluation of answer sheets/OMR sheets of the competitive written examination held on 02.02.2014. Vide letter dated 24.02.2014, State Government accorded no objection for getting the answer sheets evaluated from a reputed institution having experience of 3 to 4 years of conducting the written examinations of Union Public Service Commission/Public Service Commission/JEE/CPMT and also having experience of evaluating of the answer sheets/OMR sheets with good track record. In pursuance to the same, offers were received by the authorities from Subharti Medical University, Meerut, Tata Consultancy Ltd. Lucknow. Vide letter dated 25.02.2014, Director, Animal Husbandry Department, U.P. Lucknow requested to Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow for the evaluation work, in response to which, the aforesaid University consented to do the evaluation work. Accordingly, vide letter dated 03.03.2014, Director, Animal Husbandry Department informed all the appointing authorities of each division to collect the answer sheets/OMR sheets and handover the same to the aforesaid University. However, the said University, later on, refused to evaluate the answer sheets. Consequently, Principal Secretary, U.P. vide letter dated 20.03.2014 required the Director, Animal Husbandry Department to get the answer sheets remained with Dr. Shakuntala Mishra University securely. The Director was also directed to constitute a Committee to ensure that no manipulation/tampering is done in the answer sheets/OMR sheets. Thereafter, the answer sheet/OMR sheet were handed over to Firoze Gandhi, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Raebareli for evaluation, which, after evaluation, handed over the result of successful candidates to the said Committee. Vide letter dated 04.06.2014, the Committee handed over the merit list to the respective Additional Director Grade-II and required all the Additional Director Grade-II to get the number of interview of the candidates provided to the Firoze Gandhi Institute for preparation of the final result.;