Yashwant Varma, J. - (1.) Heard Sri Santosh Kumar Chaubey, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Manav Chaurasiya, who has appeared for the Union-respondents.
(2.) This petition challenges an order dated 4 December 2018 pursuant to which the candidature of the petitioner for being granted appointment as Constable Driver has been rejected on the ground that he did not possess a driving licence for Heavy Motor Vehicles on the last date of submission of application forms. The issue itself arises in the backdrop of the petitioner having obtained a licence for Heavy Motor Vehicle/Transport Vehicle on 1 May 2018 whereas the last date for submission of the application forms was 19 March 2018.
(3.) The submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner was that the petitioner did possess a licence for Light Motor Vehicle and Motor Cycle with gear issued in 2014 and he was therefore incorrectly found to be ineligible. It is further contended that the clause in the advertisement dealing with "Experience" required an applicant to establish that he had three years' experience of driving "Heavy Motor Vehicle/Transport Vehicle or Light Motor Vehicle and Motor Cycle with gear" as on the last date of submission of application. According to the learned counsel, this must necessarily be viewed as enabling candidates to possess a licence in either of the categories. Dealing with the stages of the recruitment process itself it was lastly urged that the testimonials could have been filed right upto the end of the recruitment exercise itself and that merely because the last date of application was prescribed to be 19 March 2018, the same alone would not merit rejection of the application made by the petitioner.;