Sandeep Mehta, J. - (1.) THE petitioners are such candidates who crave appointment on the posts of Vidhyalay Sahayaks in pursuance of a recruitment notice issued by the respondents in the year 2015 under the Rajasthan Vidhyalay Sahayak Subordinate Service Rules, 2015. The aspirants are required to submit online application forms as per the advertisement. The petitioners claim that despite fulfilling the requisite criterion, they are being prevented from submitting the application forms for two reasons, (i) that they were overage in the earlier stint of service put in by them in the educational schemes, projects/institution described in Rule 2(j) of the Rules of 2015 and (ii) that the competent authorities are not countersigning the proforma experience certificate and thus, the online application forms are not being uploaded on the portal.
(2.) COUNSEL for the petitioners contend that Rule 41 of the Rules of 2015 confers power upon the administrative department of the Government of Rajasthan to relax the age or the requirement of experience in suitable cases looking to the nature of hardship. They submit that an exactly identical rule was interpreted by this Court in an earlier recruitment for the post of Shikha Sahayak and the Court permitted the candidates concerned to submit hard copies of their application forms to the authorities. Simultaneously, the overage candidates were required to submit their detailed representations to the competent authority for giving them age relaxation. The competent authority in turn was directed to decide such representation as per law and as per the judgment rendered by the Jaipur Bench of this Court in the case of Shailesh Verma Vs. State of Rajasthan being S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1839/2009 decided on 5.9.2012. Learned counsel submit that the instant writ petition may also be decided with the same directions. Learned A.A.G. is not in a position to dispute the fact that the power of age relaxation is available to the competent authority under Rule 41. However, he contends that such powers can be exercised by the competent authority in appropriate cases only looking to the nature of the hardship faced by a particular candidate.
(3.) THIS Court, by way of an interim measure, has already allowed a large number of candidates to submit their offline application forms to the concerned District Education Officer. The respondents have also uploaded a proforma offline application form on the official website.;