After a gap of almost seven years, a division bench of the Bombay high court (HC) conducted a hearing on Sunday. The chief justice conducted hearings of two petitions filed by 10 persons who sought urgent relief with regards to the recruitment exams of the Ordnance Factory which start from October 5. The limited relief sought by petitioners was to be permitted to appear for the exams as they were held once every four years. The court, however, refused to intervene as they had not challenged the eligibility criteria for the recruitment exams.
A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the petitions of Mahesh Bhalke and others through video conferencing, was informed that they were working in an ammunition factory and were pursuing diploma courses for chargeman in various institutes affiliated to the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).
The advocate submitted that the final exams of the diploma course were to be held in April/May but were postponed due to the pandemic. He further submitted that they were desirous of appearing for the recruitment exam for the post of chargeman announced by the Ordnance Factory Board in May. However, as the final exams of their diploma course were pending, they were deemed ineligible for the recruitment exams. Hence, they approached Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) seeking relief in the form of waiving of the eligibility criteria, but after CAT refused, they approached the HC.
The advocate for the petitioners submitted that as the exam was held once every four years and there was a proposal for privatization in the near future, they did not want to miss out on the opportunity to appear for the recruitment exams.
After hearing the submissions, the court said, “We are fully sympathetic to your case as you have said in your petition that this job opportunity comes only once in four years. But a Supreme Court (SC) judgment stares us in the face,” said Datta, adding that the Apex court judgement said that if a candidate was not eligible on the last date of application, an employer could not be held liable to allow the applicant. The last date of applying for the recruitment exams was June 15. The bench then said that as the recruitment notification and the eligibility criteria of having passed diploma course was not challenged in the petition, it could not intervene and dismissed the petition.
