Surya Kant, J. - (1.) The petitioner applied for the post of Maths Master under the reserved category of dependent of Ex-Serviceman. As per the terms and conditions contained in the advertisement dated 23.09.2009 or the corrigendum dated 27.09.2009, the petitioner got issued a certificate of being dependent of an Ex-Serviceman on 06.10.2009 (Annexure P-3) but unfortunately the name of his father was wrongly spelt as Tarlok Singh instead of Trilok Singh. The petitioner produced that certificate which the respondents refused to accept on the plea that his father's name was wrongly mentioned. The petitioner got issued a corrected Certificate soon thereafter on 28.12.2009 but the same was not accepted by the respondents as it was issued after the cut off date. The petitioner represented the District Sainik Welfare Board, Gurdaspur who vide memo dated 19.04.2011 (Annexure P-8) informed the Director Public Instructions, Department of School Education, Punjab to the following effect:- " 2. You are hereby informed about the above cited subject that a certificate registered at register Number 105/Steno/1080 dated 06.10.2009 had been issued to Mr. Gurmeet Singh son of Ex.Naib Subedaar Trilok Singh by this office. At the time of making the certificate by this office the name of the Ex-Serviceman had been written as Tarlok Singh and that (i) should have been written in place of (a) Later on this Ex-Serviceman jon 28.12.2009 had got issued a new certificate registered in register number 105/Steno/2009/1584 dated 28.12.2009 for the same post, after depositing the earlier dependant certificate. This certificate has been issued by writing the name of the ExServiceman as Trilok Singh, who is father of Gurmeet Singh. Both the certificates have been issued for the same post i.e. the Maths Teacher/for the same Advertisement and the son of Ex-Serviceman namely Gurmeet Singh is the candidate." (emphasis supplied).
(2.) Having heard learned counsel for the parties, I am of the considered view that the action of the respondents in not treating the petitioner as a dependent of Ex-Serviceman is hyper technical and he has been put to disadvantage for no fault on his part. The wrong spelling of his father's name in the certificate was a human error for which the petitioner ought not to have been penalized. Accordingly, the writ petition is allowed with a direction to the respondents to treat the petitioner as a dependent of Ex-Serviceman and grant him the consequential benefits including appointment, if he is entitled to the same as per his merit and eligibility. Petition allowed;