AMITAVA ROY,CJ - (1.) APART from questioning the vires of Rule 12 of the Rajasthan Municipalities (Safai Employee Service) Rules, 2012 (for short hereinafter referred to as "the Rules of 2012"), the petitioners seek an appropriate writ or direction to permit them to participate in the selection process initiated for appointment to the post of Sweeper vide advertisement dated 25.5.2012. A direction to the respondents for relaxation of their age as mentioned in the advertisement has also been sought for.
(2.) WE have heard Mr.Nishant Motsara, learned counsel for the petitioners and Dr.Pratishtha Dave, Mr.R.S.Saluja & Mr.Yashwant Mehta, learned counsel appearing for the respondents. The pleaded case of the petitioners in short is that the petitioners have studied upto Class X, belong to the Scheduled Caste community and have the necessary experience as a Sweeper. By the aforementioned advertisement, the Department of Local Self Government, Govt. of Rajasthan, did launch a process for recruitment to the post of Sweeper in the Municipalities of the State. In terms of the advertisement, the age limits, as a condition of eligibility, were prescribed to be 18 years and 35 years respectively. Relaxation of five years for members of the S.C./S.T. Community and upper age limit of 50 years for Ex Servicemen was prescribed. According to the petitioners, the last recruitment process for appointment to the post of Sweeper had been conducted in the year 1996 and thereafter many vacancies though had remained unfilled, no exercise was undertaken for reasons unknown. By Notification No.F.7(6) DOP/A II/2008 dt.23.9.2008, the following incorporation was made in the Service Rules as detailed in the Schedule thereto: "If a candidate would have been entitled in respect of his/her age for direct recruitment in any year in which no such recruitment was held, he/she shall be deemed to be eligible in the next following recruitment if he/she is not overage by more than 3 years. In the Schedule of this Notification, as adverted to hereinabove, none of the Rules mentioned therein did deal with either the process of recruitment to the post of Sweeper in the Municipalities or their service conditions. By Notification No.8 (Ga)/Rules/DLB/2012/2848 dt.18.4.2012, the Rajasthan Municipalities (Safai Employees Service) Rules, 2012 were notified having been framed in exercise of the powers under Section 337 read with Section 335 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 2009 (for short hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). Rule 6 and Rule 12 of the Rules of 2012 read as under: "6. Eligibility and age. (1) Persons having two years' working experience of Safai in any Municipality of the State of Rajasthan shall be eligible for the post. The widow and divorcee woman may be given preference. (2) For direct recruitment a candidate must have attained age of 18 years and must not have attained the age of 35 years on the last date of submission of the application for direct recruitment: Provided that the candidates of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe shall be given five years age relaxation in the upper age limit. Provided further that the upper age limit for Ex serviceman candidate shall be fifty years. 12. Regularization of the irregular employee. The persons irregularly appointed on duly sanctioned posts and completed ten years service on 10.4.2006 and continuously working as such on the date of commencement of these rules, shall be screened by a committee consisting of (i) Chairperson of the Municipality Chairperson (ii) Deputy Director (Regional) Member (iii)Chief Municipal Officer of the Municipality Member Secretary Provided they were eligible for appointment, as per rules on the date of their initial regular appointment and vacancy is available at the time of screening. The Appointing Authority shall issue appointment order of the person, who is adjudged suitable by the Screening Committee ad appointment shall be effective from the date of issue of such appointment order. Provided further that the inter se seniority of the persons screened under this rule shall be determined on the basis of their length of such continuous service in the Municipality after their regular appointment. These persons shall rank junior to the persons appointed regularly before commencement of these rules."
(3.) AS will appear from Rule 6 of the Rules of 2012, as extracted hereinabove, the insertion made by the Notification dated 18.4.2012 was not integrated therein and, as such, for direct recruitment of a candidate in terms of the Rules of 2012, the lower and upper age limit stood as 18 years and 35 years respectively. In terms of the proviso however, the candidates of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community were entitled to age relaxation of five years in the upper age limit. Further, the upper age limit for the Ex serviceman was fixed as fifty years.;