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2023 DIGILAW 55 (RAJ)

Lala Ram S/o Shri Jawana Ram v. State of Rajasthan

2023-01-05

DINESH MEHTA

body2023
ORDER : 1. Present writ petition and others enlisted in the Schedule appended herewith involve common grievance and identical relief. Hence, they are being disposed of conjointly by this Common order. The Schedule shall be treated as part and parcel of the order instant. 2. All the petitioners claim to have worked under the Government or schemes being run by the Government on contract basis or through placement agencies. All of them wish to apply for the post of Nursing Officer advertised by the respondents by recruitment notification dated 16.11.2022. 3. The terms of the advertisement and relevant Rules provide for bonus marks to eligible candidates on the basis of experience gained on prescribed conditions and for the purpose of claiming bonus marks candidates are required to upload experience certificate in prescribed proforma duly issued by the competent authority (CMHO concerned). 4. Their main grievance is, that in spite of the fact that they have applied for issuance of experience certificate which is mandatory for claiming bonus marks for the post of Nursing Officer, the concerned CMHO/authorities are not issuing them experience certificates due to which they are not able to submit their online application forms. 5. While pointing out that thousands of applicants have applied for experience certificate and there are limited resources and manpower to deal with such huge number of applications in short span of time, learned counsel submitted that in absence of clear guidelines and yardsticks, the CMHOs are taking longer than usual time and precaution while issuing experience certificates. It was also contended that in many cases they are verbally refusing to issue certificates citing that the applicant is not entitled for bonus marks. 6. It is brought to the notice of the Court by the learned counsel for the petitioners that in view of the stipulation carved in the circular dated 05.12.2022 particularly ^^ik= vH;fFkZ;ks** the CMHO concerned are raising all types of queries/hurdles and making it almost impossible to obtain an experience certificate. 7. It was argued that though the entitlement for bonus marks is to be determined by the competent authority/recruitment authority at the time of document verification or preparation of merit list, but the CMHOs have taken unto themselves the task of adjudging the eligibility of each candidate. 8. 7. It was argued that though the entitlement for bonus marks is to be determined by the competent authority/recruitment authority at the time of document verification or preparation of merit list, but the CMHOs have taken unto themselves the task of adjudging the eligibility of each candidate. 8. Considering the grievance of the petitioners, this Court had directed the Joint Director (Recruitment) Medical and Health to remain present so that the concern expressed and issues raised by the petitioners can be appropriately addressed. 9. Mr. Sanjay Saxena, Joint Director (Non-Gazetted), OIC Recruitment present in person assured the Court that full cooperation would be extended to the candidates and though instructions have been issued to expeditiously issue experience certificate and circulars have been issued from time to time, yet clarification, addressing various concerns shown by the candidates, would be issued within a period of three days from today. And all the authorities will be directed to issue experience certificate in light of the direction issued by the Court and in terms of the circular that will be issued by the Directorate/State. 10. Heard learned counsel for the parties and the Joint Director. 11. In a bid to ward off inconvenience and hardship to the candidates and in order to expedite and streamline the process of issuing experience certificate, it is deemed expedient and hence ordered that: (i) Henceforth, the candidates will be required to submit their application forms in two copies, out of which one copy will be returned to the candidate with a receipt with date and seal by the officials of the concerned CMHO. (ii) All the candidates will be required to submit a copy of the experience certificate, issued by the concerned agency/NGO/ respective authorities while submitting application for experience certificate. (iii) All the candidates who have applied for issuance of experience certificate by 12.01.2023, will be issued experience certificates in prescribed proforma in accordance with law, as early as possible, latest by 16.01.2023. (iv) The experience certificate will be issued on the basis of experience gained and duties (name of post/job) discharged by the candidates, regardless of their opinion about concerned candidates' entitlement for bonus marks. (v) All the candidates will be permitted to submit their online application form (upto the last date) with the claim of bonus marks, even without uploading the experience certificate. (v) All the candidates will be permitted to submit their online application form (upto the last date) with the claim of bonus marks, even without uploading the experience certificate. (vi) After the process of submitting online application form is over, the recruiting authority will open the window/website at least for a period of seven days and permit the candidates to amend/modify their application form (if required) and allow the candidates to upload the experience certificate whose certificates will be issued after 16.01.2023. (vii) Considering the judgments of this Court rendered in the case of Mahipal Lakhera vs. State of Rajasthan and Others, S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2577/2020 decided on 11.01.2021 and Sanwar Mal Saran and Others vs. State of Rajasthan and Others, S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 12080/2018, decided on 28.08.2018, it is directed that the candidates who have worked in 108 Ambulance and Mobile Medical Units will apply for experience certificate with copies of their earlier experience certificates issued in the year 2013/2018. The concerned CMHOs will accordingly verify them and issue experience certificate in the new format, considering the judgments rendered in the cases of Mahipal Lakhera (supra) and Sanwar Mal Saran (supra). (viii) The CMHOs concerned shall confine themselves to issue experience certificate after verifying the facts regarding experience gained on a particular post, without bothering themselves about candidate's eligibility/entitlement for a particular post and/or bonus marks. They will obviously examine the actual work performed by the candidates. 12. Needless to observe that above directions have been issued only for the purpose of issuing the certificates. Mere grant of experience certificate will not confer any right upon the candidates to claim bonus marks. It will be open for the respondents to verify the veracity and entitlement of individual candidates on the basis of the experience gained, nature of work performed and applicable law. 13. The Director (Non-Gazetted) shall issue a circular and inform all concerned incorporating above directions and all other requisite instructions within a period of three days. 14. All the petitions so also stay petitions stand disposed of accordingly. 15. Rights of the respondents to reject/refuse experience certificate in appropriate cases shall stand reserved and so shall remain the candidates' rights to take legal recourse.