Gauhati High Court asks APSC, DTE to take the final call

ACCEPTABILITY OF SPECIFIC TECHNICAL DIPLOMA

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has asked the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) and the State's Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) to discuss and arrive at a final conclusion as to whether a diploma in 'Civil Engineering and Planning' is also an acceptable qualification where the required qualification is a diploma in 'Civil Engineering'.

The court recently disposed of a Writ Petition filed by a person of the OBC category who has a diploma in Civil Engineering and Planning from the Girls' Polytechnic, Bamunimaidam. The petitioner had participated in a selection process for recruitment to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil Engineering Branch) of the Irrigation Department as per an advertisement dated August 19, 2020 issued by the APSC. As per the advertisement, the requisite educational qualification was that a candidate must have passed the three-year diploma course in the engineering discipline concerned from an institute recognized by the State Council for Technical Education and that the diploma obtained through distance mode of education will not be acceptable.

The petitioner's candidature was rejected on the ground that the diploma was that of Diploma in Civil Engineering & Planning in place of Diploma in Civil Engineering.

The Director of Technical Education, however, subsequently informed the APSC in writing that "as per AICTE's (All India Council for Technical Education) notification and Assam Government Office Memorandum … Diploma in Civil Engineering and Planning may be considered as equivalent to Diploma in Civil Engineering".

The court said in its order: "The required final conclusion that is to be arrived between the APSC and the Department of Technical Education be done within a period of three weeks as agreed between by both the parties … Till such mutually acceptable conclusion between the APSC and the Department is arrived at, the further recruitment process pursuant to the advertisement dated 19.08.2020 shall not be carried forward by any of the respondents henceforth... If the final conclusion is in favour of diploma in Civil Engineering and Planning being acceptable where the required qualification is diploma in Civil Engineering, the APSC may incorporate necessary changes in the result of the selection and if the decision is against, the selection result, i.e., already available, may be acted upon."

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