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Judgment
Ajay Mohan Goel, J
By way of this petition, the petitioner has, inter alia, prayed for the following relief:-
“(i) That the respondents may kindly be directed to offer appointment to the applicant against the post of Lecturer (Economics) in GSSS Shiwang, Tehsil Kumarsain, District Shimla (H.P.) or any other vacant post on PTA basis, in the interest of justice.”
Brief facts necessary for the adjudication of present petition are as under:- Case of the petitioner is that he was selected and appointed as a Lecturer (Economics) under the PTA Policy in Government Senior Secondary School, Baragaon, Tehsil Kumarsain, District Shimla, H.P. on 27.07.2004. His services were discontinued on the joining of a regular hand on 16.08.2004. Thereafter, in the year 2007, again the process was initiated to fill up the same post on PTA basis, for which the petitioner also applied. As per the petitioner, in terms of Annexure A-6, which is the list of candidates, who participated in the said process alongwith marks granted to them by the Selection Committee, the petitioner was at Sr. No. 2 on merit. Further as per the petitioner, as the candidate who was at Sr. No. 1 on merit did not join the service and it is in these circumstances the petition has been filed praying for the relief that a direction be issued to the respondents to offer appointment to the petitioner against the post of Lecturer (Economics) in Government Senior Secondary School Shiwang, Tehsil Kumarsain, District Shimla
The petition is opposed on the ground that pursuant to Annexure A-6, none was given appointment and the petition was otherwise not maintainable, as the petitioner had approached the appropriate Court after a lapse of 9 years.
I have heard learned counsel for the parties and also gone through the pleadings.
The petitioner is seeking issuance of a mandamus with regard to a selection process which was undertaken by the respondents in the year 2007. This is apparent from the contents of the reply filed to the petition by the respondents. The petitioner approached the erstwhile learned Himachal Pradesh State Administrative Tribunal seeking the relief quoted hereinabove in the month of April, 2016, i.e., after almost 9 years post issuance of Annexure A-6. In terms of the provisions of the Administrative Tribunals Act, the limitation for approaching the Tribunal as defined therein is one year, as from the date when the cause of action accrues. There is no justification in the contents of the pleadings that why there was such inordinate delay on the part of the petitioner in approaching the Court. Not only this, if one peruses the petition, para-5 thereof demonstrates that what is averred therein is that this petition, which was initially filed as an Original Application, was within limitation under Section 21 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. Besides this, it is not as if the Department undertook a process to appoint a regular incumbent against the post in question as per the Recruitment and Promotion Rules. Herein, rather than filling up the post either by way of appointing a regular incumbent by way of transfer or regular recruitment, the Department was resorting to the system of making stop gap arrangements by way of PTA which process in fact the Recruitment and Promotion Rules do not recognize. Further, it is evident from the reply of the State also that from the selection process which resulted into the issuance of Annexure A-6, none was selected. Learned Additional Advocate General has further informed the Court that besides the petition being highly belated, even otherwise, the petitioner has no legal right to pray for the kind of relief which has been prayed by way of present writ petition and the Court concurs with the submission of learned Additional Advocate General, for the reason that the Court cannot give the stamp of approval to these kind of stop gap arrangements because this Court is of the firm view that teaching posts are to be manned only by those teachers who are recruited against the post(s) in issue, strictly as per the Recruitment and Promotion Rules.
In view of what has been discussed hereinabove, this petition being devoid of any merit is dismissed, so also pending miscellaneous applications, if any.