Violation of norms led the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) to order conditional selection pending a final decision. This case may either reveal a major administrative lacuna or an intentional foul play by the ‘Maharashtra Public Service Commission’ (MPSC) and the Government of Maharashtra.
Through an advertisement, online applications were called by MPSC to fill up the post of ‘Dy. Director’, Technical Education and ‘Secretary’, Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (Administrative Service Group A cadre). This advertisement said, that only those persons holding a postgraduate degree in engineering with teaching experience of ten (10) years were said to be eligible for this post. This condition was according to the Govt. Resolution dated 2017.
One of the aspirants of these posts Sachin Singh Baldev Singh Chavan, lecturer at Government Technical College, Jintur, applied to this advertisement which was rejected quoting the reason as ‘Ineligible’. Sachin Singh holds a degree in engineering, a Master’s Degree, and a Doctorate in Management Science (Ph. D.). A notable fact is that the ‘Technical Education’ falls under the ambit of the ‘All Indian Council for Technical Education’ (AICTE). The term “Technical Education” as defined in the AICTE Act 1987, includes engineering, management, pharmacy, hotel management, architecture, fine arts, etc. Deprived of his fundamental right due to maybe misinterpretation of eligibility criteria or maybe due to a major administrative flaw committed by the authorities’ aggrieved Sachin Singh filed an application with the ‘MAT’, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, through Advocate Rishikesh Joshi and Vijay Kataria.
The petitioner’s advocates contended that the rejection of the application of the petitioner declaring him to be ‘ineligible’ is unlawful because of the definition given in Section 2(c) of the AICTE Act 1987. This unlawful act of the MPSC results in the petitioner losing the opportunity of employment. This act also amounts to a violation of articles 14 and 16 of the constitution of India.
The petitioner prayed to pass an interim order directing the MPSC to consider the petitioner to be eligible and be included in the selection process. The MAT after hearing the arguments of the Govt. of Maharashtra, MPSC, and the petitioner passed the order to continue with the selection process for the post of Deputy Director, Technical Education and Secretary, Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education subject to the final outcome of this petition. For further hearing the matter is posted on the board on 26th March. Advocates Rishikesh Joshi and Vijay Kataria are contesting the case on behalf of the petitioner and Advocate VR Bhumkar appeared for the Govt. of Maharashtra & the MPSC.