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HIGH COURT OF DELHI
W.P.(C) 644/2016 & C.M.No.2630/2016
DAVENDRA SINGH SANDHU AND ORS ..... Petitioners
Through Ms.Anjana Gosain with Mr.Vishu Agrawal, Advocates.
Through Mr.Umesh Sharma, CGSC with Mr.Birjesh Chaudhary, Advocate for
R- 1, 2 & 4.
Date of Decision: 25th January, 2016
JUDGMENT
1. The present writ petition has been filed seeking quashing of the advertisement dated 9th January, 2016, whereby the respondent no.2 has published the requirement of number of Guides along with eligibility criteria. The said advertisement stipulates the requirement for Northern Region to be 284, Southern Region to be 90, Western Central Region to be 87, Eastern Region to be 411 and North-Eastern Region to be 40.
2. Ms. Anjana Gosain, learned counsel for the petitioner states that the requirement of number of Guides is much higher due to the growth of tourism in our country. She states that the respondents have failed to take into account the fact that there has been an increase of 3.2% in inbound foreign tourists and increase of 11.9% of domestic tourists. 2016:DHC:582
3. Ms. Anjana Gosain further contends that the respondents have no reason to limit the number of Guides as they are self-employed and are carrying on a private profession. She relies upon the observations of this Court in Anuj Johri Vs. Union of India, 118 (2005) DLT 418, wherein it has been held as under:-
4. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents states that the increase in the number of Guides has been arrived at on the basis of a formula that was agreed upon in a meeting held on 17th December, 2012. He states that the increase of inbound foreign tourists and domestic tourists has been factored into while determining the aforesaid number of Guides. He states that but for the increase in the number of tourists there would have been no increase in number of guides.
5. A perusal of the file reveals that the number of tourist guides has been calculated on the basis of a formula that was agreed upon by all the relevant stakeholders in its meeting held on 17th December,
2012. The relevant portion of the minutes of the said meeting is reproduced hereinbelow:- “A meeting was chaired by ADG (T) on 17.12.2012 with the Director, IITTM; all domestic RDs; travel trade associations & TFGI to assess the exact requirement of RLG in all the regions. In the meeting, the domestic RDs were requested to submit the total number of active and inactive RLF at present in the respective regions and their language and age-wise profiles. As per the data submitted by the RDs there are 2499 RLG in India at present. It was also decided to put together a formula based on foreign tourist arrivals to various regions in India and RLG available in all regions. The formula has been devised as follows:
I. Absolute number of tourist arrivals from a particular country in a particular region (on the basis of major ports of entry) = Total number of tourist arrivals X % of tourist arrivals particular country to India from that country