Assam: Gauhati High Court orders appointment of EWS candidates for Junior Engineer posts

The Gauhati High Court, presided over by Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, has ordered the appointment of candidates who were denied jobs despite securing higher marks in the final selection list for Junior Engineer (Civil) posts under the Panchayat and Rural Development Department (P&RD) of Assam. The court's decision came in response to a writ petition filed by candidates belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.

The dispute arose after an advertisement was published on June 24, 2020, to fill 344 Junior Engineer (Civil) posts, with 33 reserved for EWS candidates. The petitioners, who applied and claimed to have been selected based on merit, alleged that they were unjustly denied appointments due to issues with their EWS certificates.

The petitioners argued that their EWS certificates, issued during the 2019-2020 financial year, were valid and relevant to the recruitment process. They contended that the rejection of their certificates by the authorities was arbitrary, as no clear guidelines were provided regarding the timing and format of the EWS certificates. They further highlighted that candidates with lower marks were appointed in their stead.

The court, while ruling in favor of the petitioners, observed that the advertisement lacked specific guidelines for the format of EWS certificates, leading to ambiguity in the recruitment process. The court noted that the concept of EWS reservations was relatively new, introduced in 2019, and that the absence of a standardized certificate format until 2022 contributed to the confusion.

Justice Medhi emphasized that, given the emerging nature of EWS reservations and the absence of clear guidelines, the rejection of the petitioners' certificates was unreasonable. The court directed that the petitioners be appointed as Junior Engineers in the P&RD Department, stressing that this decision was specific to the unique circumstances of the case.