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TMI Blog1990 (4) TMI 294X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Hospitals in the State of Bihar. For the post of Assistant Professor only such officers who had worked as Resident or Registrar in Medical Hospital recognised for imparting M.B.B.S. studies by the Medical Council of India and having three years experience of such post were considered eligible. The last date for receipt of the application was fixed as 31st January, 1988. Pursuant to the said advertisement applications were received from eligible candidates and the select list or panel was prepared for appointments to the respective posts. The respondents and some intervenors who held appointments as junior teachers in one or the other Medical Colleges in the State questioned the validity of the State's action of inviting applications for preparation of a list for appointments to the advertised posts mainly on the ground that the last date for receipt of applications fixed as 31st January, 1988 (hereinafter called 'the cut-off date') deprived them of the opportunity to compete for the posts as they did not complete the requisite experience criterion of three years by that time. It was contended that this cut-off date was arbitrarily fixed and was, therefore, violative of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the eligibility of the candidates. The State Government was, therefore, directed to shift the last date for receipt of the applications from 3 1st January 1988 to 30th June, 1988 and to prepare a fresh panel thereafter and make appointments to the posts in question therefrom. The State of Bihar feeling aggrieved by this order has approached this Court by special leave. The learned counsel for the State submitted that the decision of the High Court was based on an erroneous premise that the cut-off date for eligibility purposes was 'always' fixed as 30th of June of the relevant year in the past. In order to dispel this assumption made by the High Court without examining the past advertisements the State Government has placed before us the advertisements issued from 1974 to 1980 which shows that different cut-off dates were fixed under these different advertisements and at no time in the past between 1974 and 1980 was 30th of June fixed as the relevant date. It is true that the High Court did not have the benefit of the earlier advertisements but it is equally true that there was no material on the record of the High Court for concluding that in the past the cut-off date ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vidence at all. We have, therefore, thought it fit to permit the State Government to place material on record to justify its contention that the High Court had committed a grave error in assuming that in the past the cut-off date was always fixed as 30th of June of the relevant year. It was next contended that this Court should not interfere in exercise of its extra-ordinary Jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution. In support of this contention reliance was placed on the observations of this Court in Municipal Board. Pratabgarh Anr. v. Mahendra Singh Chawla Ors., [1982] 3 SCC 331 wherein this Court while correcting an error of law refused to interfere with the decision of the High Court directing reinstatement of the workman on the finding that the termination order was invalid. That was, however, a case where the Court came to the conclusion that the employee was a capable hand and his services were actually needed by the appellant Municipal Board. It was in those special circumstances that this Court while correcting the error refused to interfere with the order of reinstatement. The decision, therefore, turned on the special facts of that case. The appellant ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ricious or whimsical. When it is necessary for the legislature or the authorities to fix a line or a date and there is no mathematical or logical way of fixing it precisely, the decision of the legislature or authority must be accepted unless it is shown to be capricious or whimsical or wide off the reasonable mark. In the second mentioned case this Court, while upholding the constitutional validity of section 31-B of the U.P.Higher Educational Service Commission Act, 1980, answered two contentions, namely, (1) adoption of the cut-off date in the said section as 3rd January, 1984 for the purposes of regularisation of the services of ad-hoc teachers appointed by the management of the affiliated colleges was arbitrary and irrational and violative of Article 14 inasmuch as equals were treated as unequals, and (ii) the Legislature could not arbitrarily adopt 3rd January, 1984 as the cut-off date for regularisation of the services of ad-hoc teachers merely because that was the date on which the 1983 order expired. Agreeing with the High Court that the fixation of the date for the purposes of regularisation was not arbitrary or irrational, this Court observed that the object of section 3 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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