Rajasthan High Court Directs Formation of Committee to Verify Degrees in Teacher Recruitment Case
The Rajasthan High Court stated that the Petitioners’ appointments cannot be cancelled simply because of discrepancies were noticed or alleged by the Respondents.
The Rajasthan High Court has directed the formation of a committee to verify the degrees of the Petitioners in a series of Writ Petitions related to teacher recruitment.
The Writ Petitions filed by teachers challenging notices from District Education Officers seeking to cancel their appointments. The discrepancies alleged in the notices included issues with roll numbers, years of passing, dates of result declaration, and the names of universities. The Petitioners argued that they were appointed after a thorough document verification process by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB). They contended that the move to cancel their appointments was based on "trivial technical issues."
A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta held, “In response to Court’s direction, an additional affidavit has been submitted by the Secretary of the Board, inter alia, accepting the fact that the document verification was done by the Board, however, with a caveat that the committee which conducted document verification comprised of three members nominated by the Education Department.”
Advocate C.S. Kotwani appeared for the Petitioners, while Advocate N.K. Mehta represented the Respondents.
Brief Facts
The RSSB, in response to the Court's directive, submitted an affidavit confirming that document verification was conducted. However, the RSSB also cautioned that the State was advised to verify the genuineness of degrees from certain universities, including Singhania University, OPJS University, and Sunrise University. They argued that there were instances where the number of candidates claiming degrees from certain universities exceeded the universities' intake capacity.
Court’s Reasoning
“The petitioners may have genuine reasons or valid explanation for the discrepancies which the Directorate has pointed out. But, the factual inquiry as prayed by the petitioners cannot be done by this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction,” the Bench remarked.
Consequently, the Court ordered, “With the consent of the parties, this Court deems it appropriate to constitute a three-Member Committee to examine the veracity of the allegations leveled against the petitioners vis-avis their defense and also to take into account any other additional/incidental issue that crops up.”
The Bench further ordered, “Such Committee will be headed by the Secretary of the Board and would comprise of one officer of Joint Director level of the Education Department to be nominated by Principal Secretary of the Education Department and an officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police to be nominated by Director General of the Special Operations Group…The Members be nominated by Principal Secretary of the Education Department and Director General of the Special Operations Group within a period of seven days from today…The Committee so constituted shall accord opportunity of personal hearing to all the petitioners by intimating the date, time and place of appearance within a period of 15 days from today.”
Accordingly, the High Court directed the Petitioners to produce:
- “Date of admission in the course and duration of course.
- Whether the course undertaken by the petitioners was correspondence course or was a regular course?
- If the course was regular course, then whether the application for leave was applied/obtained, in case the incumbent was in Government service.
- Proof of payment of fee for the course for all the semesters including date and mode of payment.
- Dates when the petitioners have attended the classes.
- The schedule of the examination conducted, if any.
- Where did the petitioners take exams (place)?
- How did they receive the mark-sheets – whether by post or by hand?”
Cause Title: Yashwant v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. and Other Connected Petitions (Neutral Citation: 2025:RJ-JD:17228)
Appearance:
Petitioners: Advocates C.S. Kotwani and Hitendra Singh
Respondents: Advocates N.K.Mehta and Manish Pate