AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH,J. - (1.) BY this order, I propose to dispose of four civil writ petitions i.e. C.W.P.Nos. 2977, 4555, 4701 and 7211 of 2009 as the petitioners in these writ petitions are applicants for allotment of Indane L.P.G. Distributorship at Chunni, District Fatehgarh Sahib, reserved for open women (Rural) category in response to an advertisement dated 18.9.2006.
(2.) IN C.W.P. No. 2977 of 2009, the petitioner submits that she had submitted her application, complete in all respects, in November, 2006. She received letter dated 10.2.2009 from the respondent-Indian Oil Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation) intimating her that she had not submitted her proof of date of birth along with the application form. Responding, the petitioner wrote a letter dated 16.2.2009 that she had enclosed her Matriculation Certificate issued by the Punjab School Education Board but as it did not mention the date of birth, she had enclosed other documents in proof of her date of birth, such as, the attested photocopies of Permanent Account Number issued by the Commissioner of Income Tax, Patiala, Income Tax Return, LIC Surrender Value Quotation Certificate issued by the Sr.Branch Manager, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Chandigarh. However, to her surprise, she received a communication dated 19.02x.2009 from the respondent- Corporation intimating her that only Matriculation/SSC Certificate indicating date of birth is accepted as a proof of date of birth and any other proof of date of birth is not acceptable. This, it was stated, was based on column No. 1(f) of the application format as advertised in The Tribune dated 18.9.2006. Aggrieved by rejection of her application form and non-receipt of the interview for selection for distributorship of Indane LPG, the petitioner approached this Court by filing the instant writ petition upon which notice of motion was issued on 26.2.2009 with an interim direction to the respondent- Corporation to allow the petitioner to participate in the interview on 28.2.2009 onwards as a provisional measure. Such consideration was subject to the ultimate decision of the writ petition. The petitioner was interviewed and on evaluation, as per the criteria adopted by the Selection Committee, was granted 87.07 marks and was placed at Sr.No. 1 in the provisional merit list. The objection raised by the respondent-Corporation with regard to the candidature of the petitioner is that the Matriculation Certificate attached by the petitioner along with the application does not contain the date of birth. As per column 1(f) of the application format, the candidate has to enclose an attested copy of the Matriculation or Secondary School Certificate indicating the date of birth along with the application form. As no other document is admissible except the one which has been mentioned in column No. 1 (f) i.e. Matriculation or Secondary School Certificate indicating the date of birth, the other documents attached with the application could not be taken into consideration for determining the date of birth. As per clause 13 (h) of the guidelines for selection of dealership/distributorship, applications which are incomplete in any respect will not be considered and no correspondence was to be entertained whatsoever by the Corporation. Clause 13 (g) further provides that no additional document whatsoever will be accepted or considered after the cut off date for submission of the application. On this ground, thus, the application of the petitioner has been rightly rejected by the Corporation.
(3.) IT has further been stated that the eligibility conditions envisaged in the advertisement have to be strictly complied with and there can be no deviation from the same. Reliance has been placed on a Division Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Dharam Pal Kansal v. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and another, 2008 (3) RCR Civil 654 as also a Division Bench judgment of this Court in CWP No. 11315 of 2008 titled as Jagdip Singh v. Indian Oil Corporation and another, decided on 19.8.2008.;