High court directs consideration of original qualification date for lecturer appointment
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that results from improvement examination should relate back to the date of the original result. The assertion came as Justice Aman Chaudhary disposed of a petition filed by candidate Sapna Kataria before directing the state of Punjab and another respondent to consider her for appointment as a lecturer based on her merit position, experience certificate, and original MA (English) qualification date.
The petitioner through advocates Kapil Kakkar and Shreesh Kakkar contended that the petitioner had initially secured an MA degree in 2001 but improved her marks in 2006. She applied for the lecturer’s post under a 2009 advertisement, supported by an experience certificate vouching for her employment as an ‘English Teacher’ since July 15, 2002. She appeared in the provisional merit list with 62.2667 marks. But her score was reduced to 57.2667 in the final merit list.
Appearing before the bench, Kapil Kakkar contended that the candidate was excluded from the zone of consideration on the ground that her improved degree was earned in 2006. After going through the documents and the rival contentions, the court referred to the doctrine of “relation back” –a legal principle that allows an act done at a later time to be treated as if it were done earlier. It is used in various branches of civil law, including contracts, property sales, and adoption laws.
Justice Chaudhary made it clear that the improved exam result was required to take effect from the original degree date in terms of the legal principle. Referring to a high court judgment in the case of “Preeti Gulia versus the State of Haryana”, the court added that improved results effectively replaced the earlier scores.
Before parting with the order, Justice Chaudhary directed the respondents to consider the petitioner’s experience certificate and treat her MA degree as earned in 2001. The court ordered the authorities to complete the process within two months, granting the petitioner notional seniority and pay fixation but excluding actual monetary benefits.
“Having evaluated the matter in the given perspective and as fallout thereof, the present petition is disposed of directing the respondents to consider and appoint the petitioner, subject to her merit position in selection, taking into account the experience certificate which serves as evidence of her employment as an ‘English Teacher’ since July 15, 2002, treating her MA degree to have been awarded in 2001, rather than 2004/2006, where she improved her score,” Justice Chaudhary asserted.