Himachal HC quashes Health Dept’s order to withdraw nurse’s appointment

The High Court of Himachal Pradesh has quashed the Director of Health Services (DHS)’ order revoking the appointment of a staff nurse hired three years ago.

The DHS’ order stated that she was not eligible to be considered for appointment, as the recruitment was for the 2011 batch. On the other hand, Nurse Kajal Mehra graduated in 2014. She was recruited on a contract basis in the OBC-BPL category.

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The Selection Committee, after taking note of her educational qualification certificates, recommended her name for appointment to the post of staff nurse, vide office order dated March 16, 2022. She joined the Department, and after two years, a complaint was lodged with the Vigilance Department alleging that Mehra had been wrongly appointed to a post advertised for the 2011 batch. Initially, she was not given any opportunity, and her appointment letter was withdrawn. After the High Court intervened, the health department served a show-cause notice on her and, following due process, ordered the withdrawal of her appointment vide an order dated August 31, 2024.

She approached the High Court again and submitted that there was no “misrepresentation or fraud” on her part and that the Selection Committee, fully aware that she had acquired the requisite qualification for the post in 2014, recommended her name for appointment.

After hearing arguments, Justice Sandeep Sharma observed, “No doubt, as per the procedure posts notified for a particular batch can be filled up from the candidates of that batch only, meaning thereby if posts were advertised for the 2011 batch, candidates, who had acquired the requisite qualification for the post in question up till that date, only could have been considered.”

The state government informed the court that, for three posts of Staff Nurses reserved for OBC-BPL, four candidates appeared: two from the 2010 batch, one from the 2017 batch, and Mehra from the 2014 batch. Two posts reserved for the OBC-BPL category were filled by candidates from the 2010 batch; however, because Mehra was senior to the other candidate, who was from the 2017 batch, the third post was offered to her.

The High Court noted, “Fault/mistake, if any, appears to have been committed by the Selection Committee, who, while recommending the name of the petitioner, failed to take note of the fact that the seat against which the name of the petitioner was recommended can only be filled up from the candidate belonging to the batch of March 2011, whereas petitioner had admittedly acquired essential qualification for the post in question in December, 2014.”

The High Court added that “no loss can be said to have been caused to the public exchequer in as much as the post was vacant, there was no other contender for the post, who can be said to have been wronged on account of irregular selection of the petitioner.”

While setting aside the order of withdrawal of the appointment letter of Mehra, the court ordered that “prayer, if any, made by the petitioner for regularisation in terms of the regularisation policy shall be considered in accordance with the law.”