- (1.) An offer of appointment for the post of Assistant Grade III (Depot.) was made by the Food Corporation of India, Regional Office, Lucknow on 18th March, 1978 to the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 3915 of 1978. In pursuance of that offer, the petitioner submitted a joining report by letter dated 10th April, 1978. The District Manager, Food Corporation of India, respondent No. 1, intimated to the petitioner that his joining report was not being accepted, in as much as he had not procured 50 per cent marks in Graduation. It is this order which is sought to be quashed in Writ Petition No. 3915 of 1978. The offer of appointment which was made to the petitioner No. 1 was in pursuance of a test which was held on 5th Dec., 1976 for filling in certain posts of Assistant Grade III (Depot.) In the same test the petitioners in Writ Petition No.4084 of 1978 had also appeared but their Jesuits were not declared. The prayer made by them in this writ petition is that the respondents may be directed to declare the results of the petitionres of the aforesaid written test. The case of the respondents in a nut shell is that since neither the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 3915 of 1978 nor the petitioners in Writ Petition No. 4084 of 1978 had secured more than 50 per cent marks in their Graduation, none of them was eligible for appointment on the post of Assistant Grade III (Depot) and it is for this reason that the joining report of the petitioner in Writ Petition No.3915 of 1978 was not accepted and the results of the petitioners in Writ Petition No. 4084 of 1978 were not declared.
(2.) The main submission made by counsel for the petitioners in these two writ petitions is that the minimum qualification which was prescribed by Regulation 7 read with its Appendix I of the Staff Regulations, 1971 framed by the Food Corporation of India under Sec. 45 of the Food Corporation Act, 1954 was Graduate alone and it was not open to the Regional Manager to prescribe higher qualification, namely, obtaining more than 50 per cent marks in Graduation as was done by him vide order dated 17th Nov., 1976, a copy whereof has been filed as Annexure "A-l" to the counter-affidavit whereby each of the Employment Exchanges in the State of Uttar Pradesh was requested to sponsor twenty candidates fulfilling the prescribed requirements for the post of Assistant Grade III (Depot.), Educational qualification which was prescribed for general candidates in the said order was Graduate with not less than 50 per cent marks in aggregate in B.A./B.Com. examinations. Preference was to be given to candidates possessing higher qualification.
(3.) The second submission made by counsel for the petitioners was that even if the qualification prescribed in the order dated 17th Nov., 1976 is taken to be within the competence of the Regional Manager, the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 3914 of 1978 and petitioner No. 2 in the other writ petition could not be refused an appointment inasmuch as they were B.Sc. and neither B.A. nor B.Com., whereas the qualification prescribed in the order dated 17th Nov., 1976 of having obtained more than 50 per cent marks was applicable only to those who were B.A. or B.Com.;