SANGEET LODHA,J. - (1.) This intra court appeal is directed against order dated 15.5.18 passed by the learned Single Judge of this court, whereby the writ petition preferred by the appellants questioning the selection process undertaken by the respondent-Municipal Board, Khudala Falna vide advertisement dated 25.5.12 for recruitment on the post of Safai Employees, has been disposed of with the observations and directions as under: "In such circumstances, this Court, without passing any order regarding legality or illegality of complete exercise of employment in light of the disputed questions of facts raised by the parties, deem it appropriate to dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the respondents to constitute a committee consisting of two persons viz. (1) Deputy Director (Regional), Jodhpur and (2) The Legal Officer for redressal of the disputes. These two persons holding the said posts have been suggested by Dr. Pratistha Dave, learned government counsel. The persons who have been already appointed shall also have a right to go before the authority envisaged to go into the details of the irregularities raised by the petitioners. The petitioners shall make a fresh representation consolidating all issues within a period of four weeks from today and the same shall be placed before the aforementioned authorities who shall require to pass reasoned order on each and every issue strictly in accordance with law within a period of eight weeks from receiving representation. Since the private respondents have already been appointed, therefore, at this stage of employment this Court do not wish to disturb their employment and direct that the committee constituted may consider all aspects of the matter but the employees already appointed shall not be ousted. However, in case the claim of the petitioners is found to be lawful and meritorious as they have already participated in the lottery, then they shall be considered for appointment on the posts already lying vacant or to be created by the respondents strictly in accordance with law. The rights of already selected candidates shall be protected in light of the fact that they have already completed their probation period and Safai Karamchari is a post which is at the last pedestal of public employment. The protection of this order shall be only for the 39 candidates who were selected in the lottery process and are in continuous service. All consequential benefits to the employees already serving shall be given by the respondents. The committee shall give its final outcome within a period of 12 weeks from today. The outcome of the committee constituted shall be utilised by the State Government to take action against the officers concerned who have conducted the recruitment process, if anything is found to be wrong in the process by the committee constituted by this Court. The committee shall also consider entitlement of the petitioners for appointment on the said post."
(2.) The relevant facts are that the State Government vide advertisement dated 25.5.12 notified 11376 vacancies of the post of Safai Employees in various Municipalities to be filled up in accordance with the procedure laid down under the Rajasthan Municipalities (Safai Employees Service) Rules, 2012 ("Rules of 2012"). The vacancies of the said post in the respondent Municipal Board, Khudala Falna were shown as 22. The appellants herein and others applied for appointment on the said post. According to the appellants, 106 candidates were declared eligible for interview, out of them 22 persons were selected in the first phase of interview and 12 persons were declared successful in the second phase. After issuance of the select list, the Executive Officer of the Municipal Board, vide communication dated 12.9.13 informed the Director, Local Bodies, that the selection proceeding of recruitment on 34 posts of Safai Employees does not bear signature of the Chairman and Vice Chairman and accordingly sought guidance as to whether appointments should be accorded or not. Pursuant thereto, vide communication dated 4.7.14, the Director, Local Bodies informed that in absence of signatures of the Chairman and Vice Chairman, the select list is not valid and no appointment could be accorded on that basis. In these circumstances, the candidates selected were not accorded appointment. In the meantime, by way of amendment of the Rules of 2012, the lottery was included as one of the permissible modes of selection of Safai Employees. Pursuant to the directions issued by the Director, Local Bodies, vide communication dated 20.8.14, the Executive Officer, Municipal Board, Khudala Falna notified the programme for selection by lottery and 29.10.14 was notified as the date for conducting lottery. However, lottery was not conducted on the date notified and later vide communication dated 9.1.15, the candidates were informed that the lottery shall be conducted on 14.1.15 at 2.00 PM. On 5.2.15, select list of 39 candidates was issued, out of which, 22 persons were accorded appointment.
(3.) The appellants questioned the legality of the selection on various grounds, such as, the persons who even did apply for appointment and had appeared for interview in the first phase of selection process, were accorded appointment; the persons whose applications were rejected for want of experience certificate/marriage certificate, their names also appeared in the select list and the person who is habitual offender was also included in the select list and accorded appointment.;