Sanehad & Others vs General Manager, Northern Railway, Baroda House, New Delhi & Others

Manjula Das, J

The applicants have filed this OA seeking the following relief(s):-

"i) Directing the respondents to place the relevant records pertaining to the present OA before their Lordships for the proper adjudication in the matter in the interest of justice, and thereafter;

ii) To quash and setting aside the impugned orders dt. 12.12.14 by which the case of the applicants have been rejected by the experts as alleged by the respondents after declaring the same is a non-speaking, unreasoned, bald and cryptic order which is illegal, biased, perverse, unjust, arbitrary, malafide, unconstitutional, against the principles of natural justice, violative of articles 14,16 & 21 of the Constitution of India against the mandatory provisions of law, bad in law and not sustainable in the eyes of law and thereafter;

iii) directing the respondents to appoint the applicants against the vacancies notified under the Employment Notification No. 220E/Open Mkt./RRC/2012 dt. 30.08.12 with all other consequential benefits from the date from which the batch mates of the applicants have been appointed etc.

iv) Allowing the OA of the applicants with all other consequential benefits and costs.

v) Any other fit and proper relief may also be granted to the applicants."

The applicants participated in the recruitment for Group-D category post in the Northern Railway. They were successful in the written test and applicant No. 1 has qualified the physical endurance test and remaining applicants No. 2 to 4 being physically handicapped were not required to qualify the said test. However, during the course of verification of documents, the respondents raised a doubt and referred the matter to the Forensic Document Expert. He opined that the hand writing and signatures on the documents, namely, the OMR answer sheet, the application at the initial stage and document verification data, did not match with each other.

Respondents in their reply submitted that the admission of the candidate at all stages will be purely provisional subject to satisfying the prescribed conditions. Applicants appeared in the written examination and PET which were qualifying in nature. Thereafter, they were called for document verification and medical examination. It was also made clear to them that calling of candidates for document verification does not confer any right upon the concerned candidate for medical examination or appointment on any post under the respondents. The Forensic Document Expert conducted verification of documents and during this process, it was observed that applicants' signatures on the application form and documents did not match.

Heard Mr. U. Srivastava, learned counsel for applicant and Mr. V.S.R. Krishna and Mr. A. K. Srivastava, learned counsel for respondents.

At the outset, learned counsel for the applicants submits that the issue raised in the instant OA is squarely covered by the decision of the Co-ordinate Bench of this Tribunal in OA No.3628/2013 titled Dev Dutt vs. Union of India & anr. dated 09.11.2021 where this Tribunal, after meticulously considering the submissions of learned counsel for both the parties, directed as under:-

"10. The grievance raised before this Tribunal is that the applicant is not satisfied with the decision taken by the respondents in pursuance of the opinion of the so called expert. Accordingly, we are of the considered view that it would meet the ends of justice if the documents annexures R-1 to R-3 be sent to the CFSL for examination by the Railway authority within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. Ordered accordingly. On receipt of the request of the Railway authority, the CFSL shall give their report in this regard within a period of six weeks thereafter to the Railway authority, on the basis of which the Railway authority shall take a final decision as regards the employment of the applicant in Group-D post."

In view of the above, we are satisfied that this OA can also be disposed of in terms of the directions given in OA No. 3628/2013 as reproduced above. Accordingly, the respondents are directed to send the documents of all the applicants to the CFSL for examination within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. On receipt of the request of the Railway authority, the CFSL shall give their report in this regard within a period of six weeks thereafter to the Railway authority, on the basis of which the Railway authority shall take a final decision as regards the employment of the applicants in Group-D post.

With the above observations, the OA stands disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.