Rohit Sharma vs The State of Haryana and Others

Ranjit Singh, J.—The petitioner is a player and has participated in the sport of Cricket. Respondent No. 2 has advertised 2734 posts of Clerk on 7.2.2008, out of these posts 24 were reserved for the Outstanding Sports Person (General). Subsequently, the posts have been increased to 3298 and accordingly, the posts for the Outstanding Sports Person have also been increased to 26. The petitioner being eligible applied for the said post. However, his name has not been considered on the ground that he did not annex the Sports Gradation Certificate along with the application. The petitioner came to know about this, when he had not received his roll No.

The petitioner, accordingly, has filed this writ petition to seek direction for considering him eligible as subsequently, he has obtained the Sports Gradation Certificate pursuant to the directions issued by this Court and has submitted the same to the Commissioner. The reason for which the petitioner could not annex the Sports Gradation Certificate is that the same was not issued to him by the Sports Department. The petitioner had earlier filed a writ petition before this Court for issuing direction to the respondent/Sports Department to issue him Sports Gradation Certificate and in view of the directions issued by this Court, the certificate was issued.

Respondent No. 2 is justified in taking the stand that the petitioner''s application was not complete when submitted. The requirement of furnishing the Sports Gradation Certificate is clearly given in the advertisement. However, the petitioner could not submit the certificate as the Sports Department did not issue him the certificate on the ground that the Department was not issuing such certificate. The petitioner had then approached this Court.

Denial of consideration under these circumstances does not sound very fair. Sports Department had not issued Gradation Certificate. The petitioner had annexed Sports Merit Certificate with his application. It is not that the petitioner could not submit the Sports Gradation Certificate because of negligence on his part. It was due to the action of the Sports Department that the petitioner could not comply with the direction of submitting Gradation Certificate. It would not be fair to deny right of considering to the petitioner.

Let the case of the petitioner be considered in the reserved category of ''Outstanding Sports Person'' as an exception as there was no fault on his part and he had attached the merit certificate with his application.

The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of.