Srinagar: High court of J&K and Ladakh today upheld criteria of minimum and maximum educational qualification for the class-IV post as matric and 10+2 respectively.
Observing this qualification as not irrational, unreasonable or arbitrary, a division bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Sanjay Dhar said the candidates with higher qualification were not eligible to apply when the advertisement notice prescribes minimum and maximum qualification.
The court dismissed appeals by the aggrieved candidates against a judgment passed by the single judge bench on October 3, 2018.
The Court underscored that the appointment to the Class-IV posts has to be made on the basis of the suitability vis-à-vis the qualification held by the person and the nature of the job for which purpose the decision of the employer is final, provided it is not arbitrary in nature.
“Suitability and the qualifications for any post have to be laid down by the employer and the same are not liable to be interfered with judicially, until and unless the policy decision in that regard is found to be irrational or arbitrary,” court said.
In the case of appointments to Class-IV posts, the court said, higher qualification than the prescribed 10+2 may not be suitable for many reasons.
While the court pointed out that a highly qualified person may not be in a position to discharge the menial work which is required to be done by a Class-IV employee, it said if such qualified candidates are allowed to compete with candidates with lower qualification, they would obviously score above them and would get selected to the detriment of the candidates possessing the requisite eligibility.
“ Such candidates of higher qualification if selected, would always be looking for a better job and, as soon as they are selected in some other better discipline, they would leave the Class-IV post rendering the entire selection as useless, besides forcing the employer to get those posts re-advertised and re-filled,” the court said.
“In that view of the matter, the laying down of the criteria of the minimum and the maximum qualification for the Class-IV post as matric and 10+2, respectively, is neither irrational, unreasonable nor arbitrary” the court said.
Dismissing the appeals, the division bench said,“The legal position is clear that any higher qualification than the one prescribed for a particular post may not be a suitable qualification and that the employer, in its wisdom, is justified in excluding candidates with higher qualification from the ambit of selection.”