HC pulls up commission for denying appointment to SC candidate

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has admonished the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) for rejecting a Scheduled Caste category candidate’s claim for appointment as Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT), Science, in blatant violation of law. Terming the commission’s action as arbitrary, the Bench also imposed Rs 1 lakh exemplary costs to be paid to the petitioner-candidate.

“The rejection of petitioner’s candidature underlines blatant illegality and high-handedness, as the Commission has acted in teeth of law by denying what is rightfully due to him. This is arbitrary, and has forced him in unwarranted litigation, causing undue harassment and humiliation, which makes the Commission liable to pay exemplary costs,” Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya asserted.

The Bench made it clear that the commission had acted in “teeth of law” while rejecting the petitioner’s candidature on the ground that he had not cleared the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET) in the “respective subject”. The court observed that the candidate had cleared HTET in mathematics, which was sufficient for eligibility, as settled in the case of “Suman versus the State of Haryana”.

The petitioner had approached the High Court, seeking the quashing of an order dated February 2, 2023, by which his claim for appointment under the SC category was rejected for not having HTET in the subject.

The Bench found the Commission’s action to be in direct conflict with binding judicial precedents. Citing the judgment in Suman’s case, the Bench said the condition of having HTET in the “respective subject” was alien to the HTET scheme and had already been invalidated by the court.

Justice Dahiya held: “Evidently, the Rule only requires a certificate of having qualified HTET, and the condition of ‘respective subject’ in the advertisement has been prescribed by the respondents in their own wisdom, which has already been invalidated by this Court in Suman’s case… It could not, therefore, have been insisted upon.”

Allowing the petition, the Bench directed the commission to recommend the petitioner for appointment, and offer it to him against a vacant post, subject to his fulfilling requisite conditions. The State authorities were further directed to offer him appointment with effect from the date similarly situated SC category candidates were appointed in response to the same advertisement.

Haryana Tribune