HC upholds selection of teachers in Srinagar

Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 4 : High Court has dismissed the appeals and upheld the selection of various candidates as General Line Teacher (GLTs) for district Srinagar and recorded that the Rule 13 of Decentralization and Recruitment Rules has not been challenged by the aggrieved candidates before the court.
The facts of the case are that Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board issued advertisement notice No.06/2017/01 to 06/2017/14 dated 28.12.2017, inviting online application from eligible candidates for selection to the District Cadre posts of General Line Teachers.
These advertised posts related to Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Srinagar, Samba, Udhampur, Reasi and Rajouri districts. In the case of District Srinagar, 333 District Cadre posts of Teachers were advertised, out of which 33 posts were reserved for Scheduled Tribe category candidates.
After not finding the name in the select list, the aggrieved candidates challenged the selection of candidates as General Line Teachers under Scheduled Tribe category of District Srinagar by filing the writ petitions which came to be dismissed by the writ court, resulting into filing of intra-appeals against the decision of writ court.
As per the advertisement notice, only the candidates belonging to a particular district were eligible to apply for the posts pertaining to the said district. The last date for submission of application forms was fixed as 21st January, 2018.
“As already noted, the State Subject certificate, as per the existing rules, is the conclusive proof of residence of a candidate and, as such, it would be open to the writ petitioners to apply for District Cadre posts in District Bandipora and no amount of documents is enough to refute or rebut the position regarding their residence in District Bandipora”, Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Dhar said.
Court also gave the reason for dismissal of the appeals as the vires of Rule 13 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment Rules, 2010 has not been challenged by the aggrieved candidates in their writ petitions. “We are not inclined to go into this aspect of the matter. The said Rule, as on date, has to be applied as it is and not as it ought to be. For the foregoing reasons, we do not find any infirmity or illegality in the impugned judgment passed by the Writ Court. The appeals are, accordingly, dismissed being without any merit. “, DB said.
DB after having the record perused and going into the facts of the case said the State Subject certificate and Scheduled Tribe Category certificates of the writ petitioners clearly show that the writ petitioners are residents of Tehsil Gurez in District Baramulla (now District Bandipora).
The other certificates, Court added, do not suggest that they have resided in District Srinagar for a period of 15 years and that they were actually residing in Srinagar on the date of application. “All these documents have been meticulously analysed by the Writ Court and we do not find any error in the said analysis or the conclusion drawn by the Writ Court from such analysis”, DB said.
“We are afraid we cannot go into this aspect in these proceedings. Once the private respondents (selected candidates) have submitted State Subject certificates showing them to be the residents of District Srinagar before the Counselling cum Document Verification Committee, it was not open to the Committee to go behind the circumstances under which these documents were issued by the competent authority. It is impermissible for this Court also to go into this issue in these proceedings”, reads the judgment.