PRADEEP NANDRAJOG,C.J. - (1.) On 11.8.2013 an advertisement was issued inviting applications to fill up the notified vacant posts of Primary and Upper Primary Teachers. In the advertisement, vide Clause 7(7) it was brought to the notice of the applicants that they should have obtained the academic qualifications prescribed to make them eligible for being appointed to the posts in question till the last date of submission of the application forms. The appellants had appeared in the B.Ed./B.S.T.C. examination well before the last date for filling up the application forms but unfortunately for them the results were declared later.
(2.) The last date for submitting application forms was 4.9.2013 and the results of the B.Ed./B.S.T.C. examination were declared on 31.12.2014. The appellants found their names in the merit list when the result of the competitive test was announced in January, 2015. They had secured marks well above the cut off marks. They were called for verification of the documents and found themselves denied appointments on the ground that the academic qualifications prescribed had been achieved by them after the last date for submission of the application forms i.e. 4.9.2013.
(3.) The petitioners relied upon a proviso to Sub-rule(3) of Rule 266 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996 to urge before the authorities that as per the proviso the academic qualifications had to be attained before the declaration of the result of the examination conducted by the department. The stand of the department was that the proviso was no longer in existence.;