DINESH MAHESHWARI, PRATAP KRISHNA LOHRA, JJ. - (1.) The petitioner herein, who intended to offer his candidature in the process of recruitment to the post of Junior Personal Assistant (English) under the Rajasthan High Court Staff Service Rules, 2002 ('the Rules' / 'the Rules of 2002') but found no prospect therefor in view of the requirements on age and minimum qualifications, has preferred this writ petition seeking the following reliefs:- "1. By an appropriate writ, order or direction, Rule 8 of the Rules of 2002 may kindly be declared ultra vires and be struck down, to the extend it does not provide for age relaxation for the period for which the recruitment process was not undertaken each year, and 2. That in the alternate, relaxation in the upper age limit may kindly be provided to the petitioner while exercising powers under rule 30, for the years for which no recruitment was held and the petitioner may kindly be deemed to be in the age limit, and his candidature may kindly be considered for appointment, and 3. That by an appropriate writ order or direction, the minimum qualification for the post of Jr. PA may also kindly be declared irrational and arbitrary and be struck down. 4. That in the alternate it is prayed that the petitioners certificate of RKCL may be considered equivalent to the minimum qualification provided for the post of Jr. PA. in computer knowledge, and 5. Any other appropriate writ order or direction, which this Hon'ble Court deems fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, may kindly be passed in favour of the petitioner. 6. Cost of the writ petition may kindly be awarded to the petitioner."
(2.) The prescription regarding minimum qualifications and age, as occurring in the referred notification dated 09.01.2013, read as under:- "1. Minimum Educational Qualification: (i) Candidate must be a graduate from any university established by Law in India or its equivalent examination from any university recognized by the Government for the purpose and (ii) Must have passed- "O" level certificate course conducted by DOEACC under control of the Department of electronics; Or Computer Operator & Programming Assistant (COPA) Data Preparation & Preparation & Computer Software (DPCS) certificate organized under National/State council of Vocational Training Scheme; Or Diploma in Computer Science/Computer Application from any university established by Law in India or from an institution recognized by the Government; Or Diploma in computer Science & Engineering from a Polytechnic Institution recognized by the Government. 3. Age : A candidate for direct recruitment to the service must have attained the age of 18 years and must not have attained the age of 35 years on the first day of January preceding the last date fixed for submission of the application; PROVIDED That :- (1) the upper age limit shall be relaxed by five years in the case of the member of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class or Women Candidates; (2) there shall be no restriction as to age for candidate already serving in connection with the affairs of the State in a substantive or in a temporary capacity, having been so appointed prior to his/her attaining the age of 33 years; PROVIDED That :- the temporary appointment is permissible under the relevant Rules applicable to service to which the person belongs and is made in accordance with those Rules. (3) that there shall be no age limit in the case of widow and divorcee women candidate : (4) the upper age limit for the reservists, namely defence services personnel transferred to the reserve shall be 47 yrs. EXPLANATION :- in the case of widow she will have to furnish a certificate of death of her husband from the Competent Authority and in case of divorcee she will have to furnish the proof of divorce."
(3.) It has strenuously been argued by the learned counsel Mr. Sandhu that the petitioner, who possesses Bachelors Degree and then, Diploma in Stenography and also the certificate in computer from Vardhman Open University, Kota (RKCL certificate), carries all such requisite qualifications which could be co-related with the job requirement of Junior Personal Assistant but he is being considered disqualified for not answering to the qualifications prescribed under the notification in question. It is submitted that the minimum qualification for the post of Junior Personal Assistant could be that the candidate ought to have a good knowledge of computer, with good typing and stenography speed, but the qualifications as prescribed in the Rules do not have any nexus with the work of Junior Personal Assistant. It is also submitted that in various other High Courts, the qualification only as regards computer operations have been provided but in fact, the qualifications as prescribed under the notification in question are more of core computer programming rather than essential computer operations. It is submitted that in the job requirement of Junior Personal Assistant, it is not the hard core programming that has the relevance but it is the basic knowledge about operation of computer that alone could be considered relevant. Thus, according to the learned counsel, the qualifications prescribed do not match with the job profile of Junior Personal Assistant; and having been fixed arbitrarily, deserve to be struck down. It is also submitted that in the Rules framed by the State Government under Article 309, three years' relaxation in the upper age has been provided in almost all the Service Rules, for the year in which the recruitment is not held but, in the Rules of 2002, no such age relaxation is given which is absolutely discriminatory; and hence, Rule 8 deserves to be struck down.;