Srinagar: It is the exclusive prerogative of the employer to fill up vacancies as per its requirement and a candidate cannot dictate it to fill all the vacancies, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has ruled.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal while dismissing a bunch of petitions challenging appointment of constables in Jammu and Kashmir State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Battalions held “it is the sole prerogative of the employer to fill up a particular number of vacancies as per the requirement of the department and a candidate (job seekers) cannot dictate the employer to fill all the vacancies”.
The petitioners in response to advertisement notification of 2012 had submitted their applications for recruitment as constables SDRF Battalions. They participated in the Physical Standard Test (PST) and Physical Efficiency Test (PET), conducted after six years of issuance of notification. Thereafter, the select list dated 09.02.2019 was published by the respondent Police department.
The petitioners filed a writ petition assailing the select list and also sought a direction upon the official respondents to desist and refrain from acting upon the final select list.
Further relief for directing the official respondents to consider the case of the petitioners for selection against the aforementioned advertised posts of Constables in SDRF J&K, was also sought.
Challenge was thrown on the grounds that in the advertisement notification of 2012, the number of vacancies was not disclosed.
“A notification bearing No.1495 of 2017 dated 27.04.2017 did not come to the fore till the issuance of final select list dated 09.02.2019 and it was done with the sole objective to exclude the meritorious candidates including the petitioners,” they claimed.
They alleged “in case of most of the petitioners, their height/size of chest has been shown lesser than the real height/chest size which has ultimately led to loss of essential points leading to their non-selection”.
One of their essential contention was “the petitioners were verbally promised by the official respondents that the department was intending to select 850 candidates from Kashmir province and a similar number of candidates from the Jammu province as well but the official respondents concealed the number of posts till the issuance of final select list.”
The official respondents stated “the notification in respect of total number of available posts and their further category-wise distribution in respect of each District was issued by the PHQ J&K vide order No.1425 of 2017 dated 27.04.2017”.
They also stated “the recruitment was made for the vacant posts of Constables in SDRF 1st and 2nd Battalions stationed at Srinagar and Jammu respectively. The measurement of Physical Standard of the candidates was executed through a third party and the candidates including the petitioners authenticated their recorded height/chest measurement”.
None of the petitioners ever complained or appeared before the board constituted for the purpose with regard to any such discrepancy in their recorded height/chest measurement. The candidates were awarded marks strictly as per the criteria laid down in the advertisement notice, they said further.
The official respondents denied that any promise was made regarding selection of 850 candidates.
The division bench after hearing the parties and verifying the records, held that the petitioners, just for filing the petition and to take a chance have made averments in their petition.
“If they were in fact aggrieved by the non-disclosure of the number of posts, they could have challenged the notification of 2012 when the same was issued, which they did not… they would have never approached this court had they found their names figuring in the select list,” the division bench said.
