- (1.) THIS application under Art. 226 of the constitution of India is directed against certain actions taken by the respondent No. 3. The New India Assurance Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " the respondent-company ") in respect of recruitment of certain persons.
(2.) THE facts of this case, so far as they are relevant for the purpose of disposal of this case, are as follows : The respondent No. 2, General Insurance corporation of India, (hereinafter referred to as the respondent-Corporation) was formed as a government company in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act pursuant to s. 9 of the General Insurance Business Nationalisation Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as " the said Act " ). The respondent-Corporation was formed for the superintending, controlling and carrying on the business of general insurance. The respondent-company was incorporated under the appropriate Companies act and before the said Act came into force was carrying on the business of general insurance under S. 4 of the said Act, all the shares in the capital of every Indian Insurance Company stood transferred to and vested in the Central government. I shall refer to in detail the relevant provisions of the said Act when I examine the question as to whether writ lies against the respondent-company. For the purpose of recruitment of clerical and subordinate staffs, the procedure to be followed in the General Insurance Industry has been laid down (hereinafter referred to as the procedure ). The relevant provisions thereof are set out herein -below. III-Pre-recruitment Test para 17. " The candidates for recruitment all posts other than those of Subordinate Staff shall have to appear for a pre-recruitment test to be conducted by the Corporation/company at selected centres and shall not be considered for appointment if they fail to reach the requisite standard. The test shall cosist of one paper of 3 hours' duration. The maximum number of marks shall be 100. The paper will be divided into 3 sections, namely, English Arithmetic and General Knowledge. In the section on english, the candidates may be asked to write an essay, may be given a few sentences in English for making corrections, wherever necessary, and may be tested generally in the knowledge of English Grammar. 50 marks shall be allotted for the section on English. In the section of Arithmetic, the candidates shall be expected to do simple arithmetical calculations, and shall be allotted a maximum of 30 marks. The section on General Knolwedge shall be aimed at testing the candidate's general intelligence and/or his knowledge of important current events. The maximum marks allotted for this section shall be 20 " 18. The qualifying marks at the test shall be 50 % in the aggregate. In the case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes/scheduled Tribes, persons from East Pakistan who have migrated to India on or after 1-1-1964 and ex-servicemen, the percentage shall be 45. 20. Separate lists of candidates belonging to the categories of: (a) Scheduled castes (reservation of 20 % vacancies vide paragraph above ). (b) Scheduled Tribes (reservation of 10 % vacancies vide paragraph 10 above) (c) Ex-servicemen (reservation of vacancies vide paragraph 10 above)and (d) other candidates ; who have been successful at the pre-recruitment test shall be prepared in descending order or marks secured at the test. Out of these, the top-most candidates equal in number to 3 times the number of relevant vacancies to be filled in each region and in each category, shall be called for oral interview. IV-Interviews the Appointing Authority shall constitute committees to interview the eligible candidates for their final selection. The constitution of the committees shall be as indicated below : JUDGEMENT_378_LLJ1_1980Html1.htm Note : At least one of the Committee members on each Committee shall be from the personnel Department. 23. In selecting the candidates for recruitment, the Committee concerned shall take into account the qualifications of the candidate, his performance at the pre-recruitment test and at the interview, and shall allot marks out of a maximum of 50. A maximum of 25 marks shall be allotted for the candidate's performance at the pre-recruitment test and a maximum of 25 marks shall be allotted for his/her performance at the interview. Each candidate shall be asked to state in writing at the time of interview, two places of posting in order of preference. Separate lists for the various categories of candidates specified in paragraph 20 above shall be prepared centre-wise according to the performance of the candidate, and in order of merit. All the candidates selected as fit for recruitment will be included in the lists. The vacancies at each centre shall be filled up strictly in order of merit the reserved vacancies for a particular category being filled up from the list of candidates belonging to that category, and the other vacancies being filled up from the list of other candidates. From the remaining candidates, separate " reserve " lists according to the various categories of candidates specified in paragraph 20 above shall be prepared centre-wise. The " reserve " lists shall consists of about 50 % of the number of announced vacancies. The " reserve " lists shall be utilised for recruiting, if necessary, candidates during the period upto the following pre-recruitment test. If for any reason all the vacancies reserved for a particular category of candidates referred to under paragraph 20 above cannot be filled up during a particular year, from the candidates belonging to that category, the number of unfilled vacancies shall be carried over as reserved vacancies for the following year. If such vacancies cannot be filled in for 3 consecutive years the Board of the Corporation/company may consider final Dereservation of the concerned vacancies.
(3.) THE petitioners before me are some of the candidates who appeared in the said pre -recruitment tests but could not succeed. Accordingly they are not eligible candidates within the meaning of the said procedure and they are not or will not be called for interview under para 22. The grievance of the petitioner is that the provisions of the said paragraph 17 of the procedure have not been complied with by the respondent-company. It is stated that the said paragraph 17 of the procedure requires pre-recruitment tests before the question of interview under paragraph 22 arises. It is stated that no candidate can be treated as an eligible candidate unless he had been successful in such pre-recruitment test. The admitted position is that in respect of 45 persons this procedure has not been followed. The allegation is that in spite of the same these 45 persons are going to be called for interview and that they have been treated as eligible candidates for final selection. Under the said procedure only the eligible candidates may be interviewed by the Committees, constituted by the appointing authority, for final selection. Not having appeared and passed in the pre-recruitment written Test, none of these persons can be treated as an eligible candidate.;