The judgement was passed by the HC while hearing petitions filed by candidates having engineering degrees
In a judgement which attracted a lot of attention from engineering degree holders, the Allahabad High Court has recently ruled that those holding a degree in engineering cannot be appointed as junior engineers. In the present case of Deepak Singh and nine others who had approached the court arguing that they had a degree in engineering and were more qualified than those with a diploma, the court said the state government while issuing the advertisement for the post of junior engineer had invited applications from only those holding a diploma in engineering.
A three-judge bench comprising Justice B K Narayana, Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Pankaj Bhatia were of the view that the state government has the power to prescribe the requisite qualification required for an advertised post and it cannot be a matter for judicial review, reported Press Trust of India.
The Court said a Diploma in Engineering and Degree in Engineering are two distinct qualifications and a degree in the field in question cannot be viewed as a higher qualification when compared to Diploma in that field.
The Court said the degree holder is held to be ineligible to participate in the selection process of Junior Engineer in the light of the Advertisement issued.
The Court also said the exclusion of the degree holders from the zone of consideration is in consonance with the tests propounded by the Supreme Court in case of State of Uttarakhand and others vs. Deep Chandra Tewari and another.
"The State Government, while prescribing the essential qualifications or desirable qualifications are best suited to decide the requirements for selecting a candidate for nature of work required by the State Government and the courts are precluded from laying down the conditions of eligibility. If the language in the Rules is clear judicial review cannot be used to decide what is best suited for the employer," the court said.
"The 'O' level Diploma granted by NIELIT is not equivalent to Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Application and there is no presumption available to hold that the PGDCA possess the necessary qualification as prescribed for 'O' level Diploma accorded by NIELIT," the court also said.
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