Qualification for a post decided by employer, courts can't lay down eligibility, says HC

The high court has said that the qualification prescribed for appointment to a post has to be decided by an employer and courts cannot lay down the conditions or eligibility.

A division bench headed by Justice Alok Aradhe observed this while declining a petition seeking a judicial review on the issue whether a degree in Planning is equivalent to a degree in Civil Engineering or Architecture.

The petitioner has challenged the validity of Karnataka Town Planning Department Services (Recruitment) Rules, 1996, insofar as it does not include the Bachelor’s Degree in Planning as one of the qualifications along with the Degree in Civil Engineering and Degree in Architecture. The contention is relating to the recruitment process for the post of Assistant Director of Town and Country Planning by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). The commission had issued recruitment notification in June 2020 prescribing educational qualifications.

The petitioner has Bachelor’s Degree from NIT, Bhopal, and a Master’s Degree in Urban Design from University of Salford, Greater Manchester, the UK. Not having a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering or Architecture, the petitioner challenged the recruitment notification before the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal. He moved the High Court after the Tribunal rejected his application.

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The petitioner’s contention was that the exclusion of degree in Planning from the requirement of having a degree in Civil Engineering or Architecture renders the provision arbitrary. It was further submitted that the petitioner is in fact over qualified and deemed to have fulfilled the lower qualification prescribed in the
Rule.

The division bench said that the courts cannot lay down the conditions or eligibility much less it can delve into the issue with regard to desirable education being at par with essential eligibility by an interpretative rewriting of prescribed qualification. The question of equivalence of qualification is also outside the domain of judicial review, the bench said.

“The issue whether the Degree in Planning is equivalent to a Degree in Civil Engineering or Architecture is a question, which has to be decided by experts. This court in exercise of powers of judicial review cannot examine the aforesaid issue much less declare a statutory provision as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the court said.

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