- (1.) This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed by the petitioner against the respondents on 27.8.2003 with the prayer that by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents be directed to consider and count the marks obtained by the petitioner in his Senior Secondary (Vocational) Examination treating that qualification equivalent to Senior Secondary (Academic) and they be further directed to give 15 bonus marks to the petitioner for possessing certificate Annexure 7 dated 18.12.1999, which shows that he participated in Inter University, South West Zone Handball Tournament held at Shivaji University Solapur from 15.11.1999 to 18.11.1999 and then include the name of the petitioner at appropriate place in the select list and if he comes in the merit, he may be offered appointment on the post of Physical Teacher Gr. III.
(2.) The case of the petitioner as put forward by him in this writ petition is as follows : The petitioner passed the Secondary Examination from the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan, Ajmer and thereafter, he passed the Senior Secondary (Vocational) Examination from the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Ajmer in the year 1998 with first division and copy of the mark- sheet as well as the copy of the certificate are marked as Annexure-1 and Annexure-2 respectively. Thereafter, the petitioner passed the Post Graduate Diploma in Physical Education (One year Course) Examination, 2002 from the Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur and a copy of the mark-sheet is marked as Annexure-3. According to the petitioner, he has participated in Inter University, South West Zone Handball Tournament held at Shivaji University, Solapur from 15.11.1999 to 18.11.1999 as a player and for that, he has produced certificate Annexure 7, dated 18.12.1999. The further case of the petitioner is that the respondent No. 2 Director, Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Bikaner issued advertisement Annexure 9 dated 28.7.2003 inviting applications for recruitment to the posts of Physical Teacher Gr. III and in pursuance of the said advertisement Annexure-7, he being eligible applied for the post of Physical Teacher Gr. III alongwith the requisite documents within the stipulated time. Thereafter, after scrutiny of the application forms, a provisional merit list was got prepared by the respondents, but in it, the name of the petitioner has not been included at proper place for the reason that he was possessing the qualification of Senior Secondary (Vocational) and not the Senior Secondary (Academic). According to the petitioner, there are catena of judgments of this Court as well as of Hon'ble Supreme Court holding that the qualification of Senior Secondary (Vocational) Examination is equivalent to the qualification of Senior Secondary (Academic) Examination and thus, the respondents have wrongly ignored the petitioner's candidatue on the ground that he was not having requisite qualification. According to the petitioner, the action of the respondents in not counting the marks obtained by the petitioner in the Senior Secondary (Vocational) is wholly illegal and arbitrary. According to the petitioner, persons having less marks than the petitioner have been included in the select list. Apart from this, the petitioners is also entitled for 15 bonus marks as he was having certificate Annexure 7 dated 18.12.1999 of participating in Inter University, South West Zone Handball Tournament held at Shivaji University, Solapur from 15.11.1999 to 18.11.1999, which was a National Level Tournament. Hence, this writ petition with the prayers as stated above. A reply to the writ petition was filed by the respondents and it was submitted by them that the respondent No. 2 Director, Secondary Education, Bikaner has issued Circular dated 16.8.2003 (Annexure R/1) in which he has clarified that the marks of Senior Secondary (Vocational) would be counted only in the event of passing of Bridge Course and it has been further clarified that marks obtained in compulsory subjects of Vocational Course and marks obtained in optional subjects of Bridge Course would be taken into consideration and in the light of the directions contained in Circular Annexure R/1, the merit list was got prepared. Apart from this, it has been further submitted by the respondents that the petitioner participated in Inter University Tournament and for that, 10 bonus marks were given to him and furthermore, since the petitioner participated in South-West Zone Handball Tournament conducted between the Universities of particular region, therefore, it was not a national level tournament and thus, he was rightly given 10 bonus marks. Hence, no interference is called for and this writ petition deserves to be dismissed.
(3.) I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for the respondents and gone through the entire materials available on record.;