- (1.) BY this writ petition, the petitioner is seeking an appropriate writ, order or direction for appointment to the post of Teacher Grade -III advertised vide advertisement No.01/96 dated 7.1.1997 published in the newspaper dated 8.1.1997 (Anx.1) in the OBC category.
(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the relevant facts and the order/judgment passed in the writ petition relating to remand, are that after doing graduation, the petitioner passed B.Ed. Examination in the year 1996 and the mark -sheet was issued on 17.3.1997. On the date of advertisement i.e.8.1.1997, the petitioner could not apply because he had completed 33 years as his date of birth is 1.8.1963. However, the Government relaxed the age by two years in case of OBC candidates and consequently, a Corrigendum (Anx.2) dated 31.3.1997, published in the newspaper on 3.4.1997, was issued giving relaxation of 2 years to the OBC candidates in respect of the selection in question. As per the said Corrigendum, the last date of receipt of application for appointment was 15.4.1997 and the petitioner applied before the said date on the basis of which interview letter was issued on 27.4.1997. Subsequently, the interview was held and the petitioner was kept at Sl.No.111 in the general list. The selection letters were issued to the candidates who obtained 83.05% marks whereas the petitioner secured 83.46% marks and was kept at Sl.No.32 of the merit list of OBC but was not given appointment, therefore, the petitioner filed the present writ petition on the ground that persons lower in merit have been given appointment. In reply, the respondents have submitted that during the course of interview, on verification of the documents, it was found that on the last date of submission of the application form i.e. 25.1.1997, the petitioner was not possessing the basic academic qualification and further, they have also disputed the marks of the last candidate 83.05% being the cut off marks of all categories.
(3.) THE petitioner filed rejoinder in which it was submitted that the petitioner has passed out his B.Ed. Examination prior to 25.1.1997 as would be evident from the mark sheet (Anx.7) itself which is of June, 1996. Otherwise also, as per the Corrigendum, the last date for submission of the application form was 15.4.1997, therefore, for all purposes, 15.4.1997 is the relevant date to decide the issue of petitioner's possessing the academic qualification.;