Delhi High Court: In a petition filed by the Delhi Subordinate Selection Service Board (‘DSSSB’) under Section 226 of the Constitution seeking to quash and set aside the order dated 27-04-2024 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (‘CAT’), Principal Bench, New Delhi whereby a candidate belonging to the Scheduled Castes (‘SC’) category was held to be entitled to appointment as a Staff Nurse despite holding a Caste Certificate which had not been issued by State of Delhi, a Division Bench of Suresh Kumar Kait and Girish Kathpalia, JJ. upheld the impugned order and directed DSSSB to comply with the directions mentioned in the said order within four weeks.
Background
The respondent in the present matter had preferred an application before CAT pleading that as per the Advertisement by which applications were invited for filling up of vacancies, he applied under the category of ‘Staff Nurse’ under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GNCTD and was issued an admit card on 30-05-2010 wherein it was clearly mentioned that he belonged to the SC category.
The respondent appeared in the exam and was declared unsuccessful vide result dated 27-01-2011. He obtained 87 marks out of 200 whereas the last selected candidate from the SC category had secured 71 marks.
Since the respondent did not find his name in the final merit list, he approached the competent authority of DSSSB to find the reason for stall of his appointment whereby he was informed that his candidature was not considered under ‘reserved category’ as the Caste Certificate provided by him was not issued by the State of Delhi.
In his application before CAT, the respondent referred to a letter dated 30-06-2005 issued by the Government of NCT of Delhi (‘GNCTD’) whereby the SC/ST candidates were considered to be eligible for reservation to the civil posts under GNCTD irrespective of their nativity.
The DSSSB contended before CAT on the basis of decisions by the Supreme Court wherein it was held that the candidates who had obtained SC/ST certificates in Delhi based on certificates of their parents issued by other states and had migrated to Delhi, would not be entitled for the benefit of reservation and would be considered under the Un-Reserved category.
DSSSB submitted that CAT did not consider the fact that from 04-08-2009 to 12-09-2012, the benefit of reservation was not extended to SC/ST candidates under various posts by GNCTD who were not from Delhi.
Analysis and Decision
The Court noted that CAT, in the impugned judgment dated 27-04-2024, had placed heavy reliance upon another decision wherein SC candidates who had applied for the post of Staff Nurse under the same advertisement as the respondent, were denied appointment by DSSSB on the ground that the status of SC held by them was only with respect to Rajasthan.
The Court noted that CAT took note of the objection by DSSSB that the decision in Deepak Kumar v. District and Sessions Judge, Delhi 2012 SCC OnLine Del 4794 should not be applicable retrospectively and observed that this judgment quotes other judgments and that there was no cause to take a divergent view since the application preferred was a mirror image of the one in the above-mentioned case.
While hearing the matter, the Court questioned DSSSB as to whether reservation, in NCT of Delhi, was given to candidates belonging to the PwD category irrespective of the state which issued the certificate. The response was affirmative. It was also stated by the Court that the candidates belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections were appointed in NCT of Delhi irrespective of the state to which they belong.
The Court said that the State of NCT of Delhi was committing an act of sheer discrimination by providing reservation to one category and denying the same to the other category, which could not be permitted.
Further, the Court stated that another application listed for hearing on similar facts was allowed by CAT on 24-07-2023 but the respondent had to wait for relief till 27-04-2023.
The Court opined that CAT was not in error to hold that the respondent was entitled to appointment for the post of Staff Nurse as an SC candidate and dismissed the present petition while directing DSSSB to comply with the directions enumerated in para 14 of the impugned judgement dated 27-04-2024 within four weeks.
[Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board v. Vishnu Kumar Badetiya, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 6371, Decided on 04-09-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioners — Sr. Counsel Avnish Ahlawat, Advocate Nitesh Kumar Singh, Advocate Laavanya Kaushik, Advocate Aliza Alam, Advocate Mohnish Sehrawat
For Respondent — Advocate Vijrendra Singh Mahndiyan, Advocate Apurva Mahndiyan, Advocate Nikita Tiwari
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