Nitesh Kumar Singh; Laavanya Kaushik v. Pooja Jha

1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions. W.P.(C) 3724/2025 & CM APPL. 17354/2025

2. This petition has been filed by the petitioners challenging the Order dated 21.08.2024 passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as, ‘Tribunal’) in Original Application (hereinafter referred to as, ‘OA’) 1410/2024 titled Pooja Jha and Ors. vs. Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Anr., allowing the said application filed by the respondents herein following the Order dated 19.07.2024 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) 2814/2024 titled ‘Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Anr. vs. Rishikesh Sharma’ along with connected matters.

3. A brief background of the facts giving rise to the present petition is that the respondents, pursuant to an Advertisement/Notification No. 02/21 dated 12.05.2021, issued by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (hereinafter referred to as, ‘DSSSB’) for vacancies for TGTs and Assistant Teacher (Primary) (Male) and (Female) for various subjects, applied for the posts of TGT (Maths) (Female), TGT (Hindi) (Male) and TGT (Sanskrit) under the EWS category. The closing date for the submission of the online application was 24.06.2021, which was later extended till 4.07.2021.

4. It is the case of the respondents that they could not obtain EWS certificates by the closing date due to the lockdown declared by the Government owing to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As their candidature was later rejected by the petitioners on the ground that they could not submit their EWS certificate issued on or before the extended date for making the applications, the respondents filed the abovementioned OAs before the learned Tribunal.

5. The learned Tribunal, by a common Judgment dated 08.08.2023, inter alia, in OA 1524/2022 titled Anju and Ors. v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Ors. and connected matters, allowed the said the OAs filed by similarly circumstanced individuals as the respondents herein, directing as under:- “12. Conclusion: 12.[1] In conspectus of the facts of the case and in view of the above discussion, we are convinced that the applicants do possess valid EWS Certificates issued to them by the Competent Authority based on their financial status, income and assets and met the eligibility criterion. Therefore, we allow these OA(s) in peculiar facts and circumstances as narrated herein-above, the rejection notices of the respective applicants for respective categories are quashed and set aside. The applicants in all these OA(s), who are having EWS Certificates for last three financial year(s) as on the cutoff date, the respondents are directed to re-examine and reconsider the cases of the applicants afresh. On reexamination, if their candidature is found to be in order in view of the observation supra, the respondents shall process their cases, and issue offer of appointment(s) in their respective post code and respective category as per their merit position, if otherwise fulfilling other eligibility conditions as per RR's. The applicants shall be entitled to all consequential benefits which shall flow on a notional basis only. The actual benefit shall accrue from the date when the applicants actually join the post. 12.[2] The above exercise shall be completed by the respondents within a period of twelve weeks from date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.”

6. The above Judgment was challenged by the petitioners before this Court in form of inter alia W.P.(C) 2814/2024, titled Govt. Of NCT of Delhi and Anr. v. Rishikesh Sharma, and connected petitions. This Court in its Order dated 22.05.2024, upon hearing the parties observed as under:-

respondents on merits.”

7. The said batch of petitions was later dismissed by this Court vide its Order dated 19.07.2024, directing the petitioners to carry out the directions of the learned Tribunal within a period of 6 weeks from the date of the said Order.

8. We are informed that the Order in compliance with directions of this Court, has been passed by the DSSSB.

9. The learned counsel for petitioners reiterates that as the respondents did not submit their EWS certificates along with their applications before the closing dates, they were rightly not offered appointment. She further submits that presently there are no vacancies against which the respondents can be accommodated

10. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondents, who appears on advance notice, submits that this Court has already dismissed the petition raising similar pleas filed by the petitioners, and should not the petitioners should not be allowed to reagitate the same plea in this petition. He further submits that before the learned Tribunal, the petitioners were directed to keep seats vacant for the respondents, if not already filled. He submits that, therefore, the petitioners cannot make the relief, which has been granted to the respondents, infructuous, by now claiming that there are no vacancies against which the respondents can be accommodated.

11. We have considered the submissions made by the learned counsels for the parties.

12. As would be evident from the above, the issue raised by the petitioners in the present petition already stands decided by this Court vide its Order dated 22.05.2024 read with Order dated 19.07.2024 referred hereinabove. Just because of the change of the Bench of this Court, this Court would not like to re-open the issues which have already been settled and, in fact, as claimed by the learned counsel for the respondents, partly implemented by issuance of necessary Orders by the DSSSB.

13. As far as the lack of vacancies is concerned, the learned Tribunal vide its Order dated 01.05.2024, has directed the petitioners to keep seats vacant for the respondents herein in case they were to succeed in the OAs filed by them. We are of the opinion that once the respondents have succeeded in the OAs filed by them, they cannot be denied the relief; the Order of the learned Tribunal needs to be implemented.