- (1.) The petitioners-appellants have preferred this intra-court appeal being aggrieved of the order dated 17.01.2003 as passed in S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2255/1999 whereby the learned Single Judge [as his lordship then was] has dismissed the writ petition while rejecting their contentions against the validity of Rule 23 of the Rajasthan Legal (State and Subordinate) Service Rules, 1981 [ the Rules of 1981 ], which provides for minimum pass marks in the interview for selection to the post of Legal Assistant.
(2.) As the validity of Rule 23 of the Rules of 1981 is sought to be questioned in this case, appropriate it shall be to take note of the relevant provision at the outset. Rule 23 providing for interview for a personality test with maximum, and minimum qualifying, marks in viva-voce occurs in Part-IV of the Rules of 1981 that have been made for the purpose of regulating the process of recruitment and the conditions of service in Rajasthan Legal (State and Subordinate) Service. Part-IV deals with procedure for direct recruitment to the post of Legal Assistant that is filled up 100% by direct recruitment. It may be noticed that in the Scheme of Rules, all other higher posts like Head Legal Assistant, Assistant Legal Remembrancer and so on are filled up 100% by promotion. While the preceding rules in Part-IV provide for method of conducting written examination, Rule 23 provides for viva-voce after a candidate securing minimum qualifying marks in the written examination. The relevant part of Rule 23 reads as under:- 23. Viva-voce:- Candidates who obtained such minimum qualifying marks in the written examination as may be fixed by the Commission in their discretion shall be summoned by them for an interview for a personality test which shall carry 20 marks. The Commission may in its discretion award grace marks up to one in each paper and up to three in the aggregate. The Commission may fix minimum qualifying marks in the written examination for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes candidates lower than what is prescribed for other candidates. The minimum qualifying marks in Viva-Voce shall be 35% for candidates other than those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes it shall be 25%. The marks so awarded shall be added to the marks obtained in the written test by each candidate.
(3.) Now, the relevant facts and background aspects of the present matter could be briefly noticed as follows: The Rajasthan Public Service Commission advertised 19 posts of Legal Assistant while stating that the number of vacancies could be increased or decreased. Ultimately, the number of vacancies was increased to 61. In the written test held for the selections, the appellant No. 1 Neeraj Kant secured 81 marks whereas the appellant No. 2 Balvinder Singh secured 82 marks out of 150. The appellants were thereafter called for interview for the personality test carrying 20 marks; and the minimum qualifying marks in such interview were fixed at 7 [35% of the maximum marks], as per the requirements of Rule 23 ibid. Each of appellant got 6 marks in the interview and hence, both of them were declared unsuccessful.;