Madhya Pradesh High Court observes that the candidate applying for the job should be given benefit, if qualification requirements are hazy

Respondents invited applications via advertisement for the post of General Manager (Contractual) in the project implementation unit, the qualification requirement for the post was that the candidate should be retired assistant engineer with 15 years of experience on the post of assistant engineer, out of which 10 year of field experience was necessary. The petitioner being an eligible candidate applied for the post but his application was rejected and was not called for interview. It was contended by the respondents that the petitioner during the tenure of his service did not continuously hold the post of assistant engineer, instead he held the additional charge of the post and at the time of retirement he was performing duties as executive engineer. The High Court in this Writ Petition No. 31629 of 2024 observed that the executive engineer is a superior post and disqualification of such vague grounds is wrong, qualification for working in a higher post cannot be treated as a disqualification, thus it was ordered by the High Court to reconsider the petitioner’s application.