- (1.) This order shall dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 20616 of 2013 (Shiv Kumar and others v. State of Haryana and others), 19608 of 2012 (Manju Yadav v. State of Haryana and others), 23776 of 2012 (Alka Rani v. State of Haryana and others), 8956 of 2013 (Kumari Varsha v. State of Haryana and another), 10750 of 2013 (Jagdish Chander and others v. State of Haryana and others), 11773 of 2013 (Bijender Kumar v. State of Haryana and others), 14185 of 2013 (Vijay Pal and another v. State of Haryana and others), 4310 of 2014 (Manju Yadav v. State of Haryana and others), 11520 of 2014 (Bhanu Partap Sharma v. State of Haryana and others), 13342 of 2014 (Vinod Kumar v. State of Haryana and others), 17940 of 2014 (Sunil Kumar and others v. The State of Haryana and others), 17959 of 2014 (Anil Kumar v. The State of Haryana and others) and 19377 of 2014 (Anant Ram v. The State of Haryana and others) as identical issue is involved in these petitions. The petitioners in these bunch of petitions assail the action of the Haryana School Teachers Selection Board (hereinafter to be referred as 'the respondent-Board') in having rejected their candidature for the post of Post Graduate Teacher (Sanskrit) (for short as 'PGT Sanskrit') on the ground that they do not possess the essential qualification prescribed for the post i.e., M.A. Sanskrit.
(2.) Facts, in brief, are that the respondent-Board issued advertisement No. 1/2012 dated 7.6.2012 inviting applications from eligible candidates for recruitment to various posts including 1465 posts of PGT Sanskrit. As per advertisement, the common educational qualifications prescribed for all the advertised posts were as follows: "(a) Matric with Hindi/Sanskrit or 10+2/BA/MA with Hindi as one of the subject. (b) Certificate of having qualified Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET/School Teachers Eligibility Test (STET) of respective subject for the post applied, conducted by Board of School Education Haryana, Bhiwani. One time exemption of HTET (See Note-2). (c) Consistent good academic record (See Note-1). (d) Essential qualification (EQ) is given with each post."
(3.) In addition thereto, the essential qualification described for the post of PGT Sanskrit was M.A. in Sanskrit with at least 50% marks and B.Ed. from a recognized University.;