This Court dismissed a writ petition challenging an order rejecting a sports quota recruitment application. The Court held that National Games by IOA are not recognized for recruitment as per Railway Board rules, unlike National Championships.
Writ petition dismissed with liberty to trapvac. Interim order vacated.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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Reserved on 31.05.2018 Delivered on 31.08.2018
Court No. - 34 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 25419 of 2014 Petitioner :- Swarnjeet Kushwaha Respondent :- Union Of India And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Satish Mandhyan, Saumya Mandhyan Counsel for Respondent :- Govind Saran, Hari Narayan Singh, Prashant Mathur
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Ifaqat Ali Khan,J.
(Delivered by Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.)
| Group-C | Vacancies | Total | 10posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Male/Female | Sports Area | |
| Badminton | Men | Single/Doubles | |
| Gymnastic | Men | Gymnast | |
| Table Tennis | Men | Single/Doubles |
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| Cricket | Women | Spinner, All Rounder, Wicket Keeper |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Group-D | Vacancies | Total | 4 Posts |
| Football | Men | Stopper, Back, Forward | |
| Hockey | Men | Full Back, Half Forward |
“2.2.1. Minimum norms for Sports Achievements:
2.1 Group-C Posts:
2.1.1 The applicant sportsperson should have represented in any of the above mentioned games.
i) the country as a member of Junior/Senior A-Team in international mates. Such Sports person must also have medal-winning performance in National Championship OR ii) a zonal Team within the country, and the team should have obtained atleast third position in Inter Zonal Championship at All India Level. The only exception will be for games of Hockey and Football, where fourth position may also be taken into consideration. OR iii) a State or and equivalent unit in the Senior/Junior National Championship; and obtained atleast third position in individual event or atleast fourth position in team games. OR iv) a university in All India University Championship (organized under the aegis of Association of Indian University) and should have obtained atleast second position in individual event or atleast third position in team games. Or v) a state school team in National School Game for School and should have obtained first position in individual or team games. Or vi) a team securing first or second position in Federation Cup.
2.1.2 Note : i) In Cricket (Men), players who have represented teams, which participated in Ranji Trophy (Knockout stage) and/or atleast in quarterfinal stage in M.A. Chidambaram Trophy and/or rest of India will also be eligible in addition to the norms listed above.
ii) In Badminton, players with current All India Ranking up to 16 in Seniors and up to 8 in Juniors will also be eligible. The ranking for the purpose of recruitment will be current annual ranking.”
(Emphasis added)
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application dated 29.11.2004. Sports trial was held by NCRSA on 22.02.2005. Four candidates appeared along with petitioner. Petitioner came 2nd having defeated rest two candidates, while one Santosh Pandey was at 1st position.
“5. In view of the above discussions, the respondents are directed to consider and dispose of the application of the present applicant in accordance with law. Since a long time has elapsed, we consider it necessary to direct the respondents to take a decision in the matter within a period of 2 months.
6. With the observations made above the O.A. Is disposed of with no order as to costs.”
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Tribunal vide its judgment and order dated 20.04.2010 decided aforesaid O.A. holding that matter deserves to be considered at the level of Railway Board and directed it to take a decision in the matter within three months. Thereagainst, petitioner came to this Court in Writ -A No. 42216 of 2012 which was decided vide judgment dated 28.08.2012 and operative part of judgment reads as under :-
“Accordingly, without going into the merits, we propose to dispose of the writ petition by giving liberty to the petitioner to file Original Application before the Central Administrative Tribunal and as and when that is filed, it will be the concern of the tribunal to pass appropriate final orders after giving an opportunity to the respondents within shortest possible time preferably within two months from the date of receipt of the certified copy of the order. The claim of petitioner in the light of Court order and other grounds specially of sports quota will be taken care .
With the aforesaid observation, we decline to interfere in the order impugned at this stage as it is the matter of consideration/adjudication by the Central Administrative Tribunal.
With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.”
(Emphasis added)
“When the matter was taken up, Sri Saran raised a preliminary objection that pursuant to the direction of the Tribunal dated 20.04.2011, the competent authority has decided the petitioners claim and by rejecting the same which may give a fresh cause of action to the petitioner to file Original Application and thus straight way he cannot come to this Court.
Submission of Sri Saran Appears to be well founded.”
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expeditiously.
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Managers and other officers of Railways and in para 4.2.2 (e), it has clearly stated as under :-
“4.2.2 (e) For recruitment purpose, {norms under para 4.2.1(iii)} only Sr. National, Jr. National will be taken into consideration. National Games , Rural Meets, Festival Meets and other similar tournaments will not be considered .”
(Emphasis added)
“Please refer to your above mentioned letter regarding clarification to Para 4.2.1 (iii) of Board's policy letter No. E(SPORTS)2000/Policy/2 dt 19.06.2000.
It is clearly mentioned in Para 4.2.2(e) that for recruitment purpose {norms under Para 4.2.1(iii)} only Sr. National, Jr. National will be taken into consideration. National Games, rural meets, Festival Meets and other similar tournaments will not be considered.
Therefore, “XXXI National Games” held in Punjab in November, 2001 is not a recognized event for the purpose of recruitment against sports quota in the Railways.”
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Order Date :- 31.08.2018 sailesh
3 issues framed by the court
Whether representation in Senior National Games organized by IOA satisfies the recruitment norms for sports quota requiring participation in Senior/Junior National Championship.
Whether letters from IOA and Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports amend the Railway Board recruitment rules excluding National Games.
Whether the Writ Petitioner was correctly dismissed by the Tribunal for lack of eligibility under sporting norms.
2 provisions across 2 enactments
Swarnjeet Kushwaha
Union Of India
5 Others
Sudhir Agarwal
Ifaqat Ali Khan
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
