Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Valmiki J. Mehta

JUDGMENT

Valmiki J. Mehta, J.

1. By this writ petition under Article 226 & Article 227 of the Constitution of India the petitioner seeks the relief of employment with the respondent no. 2/Food Corporation of India/employer to the post of Assistant Grade-III (General). Petitioner was denied appointment on the ground that petitioner only has three years diploma in Hotel Management instead of the required graduation degree of a recognized university, and which was the term of the recruitment process in terms of the advertisement.

2. The relevant portion of the advertisement stating the requisite qualification to the appointment to the post of AG-III (General) reads as under:-

3. Admittedly, the petitioner does not have a graduation degree from a recognized University and he is only claiming equivalence of his Diploma in Hotel Management to a graduation degree. However, equivalence certificate has been filed, and in any case it is for the employer, and not this Court, to decide what are the specific eligibility criteria required by a candidate for being appointed to the post. I have recently considered this aspect in the judgment in the case of Sh. Mahesh Chandra Joshi Vs. Gail India Ltd. W.P.(C) 8150/2016 decided on 5.12.2016 and held that it is the privilege of the employer to decide what are the qualifications it wants from a candidate for applying and granting appointment to a post and an employee cannot dictate that instead of the qualifications as prescribed by the proposed employer some other qualifications be taken. The judgment in the case of Sh. Mahesh Chandra Joshi (supra) is a short judgment of 7 paragraphs and which read as under:-

"1. By this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks directions against his employer/respondent/Gail India Ltd. to quash the inter office memo dated 26.9.2008 as per which the respondent only recognizes an MBA post-graduate course/program, obtained by distance education, if the same is of three years and not of a lesser period. Petitioner is having an MBA post-graduate degree of two years through distance education. The posts in question in the present case would be the posts in the E-4 level and above in the respondent company.

2. The impugned inter-office memo dated 26.9.2008 reads as under:

GAIL (INDIA) LIMITED

CORPORATE HR DEPARTMENT

INTER OFFICE MEMO

"Subject : Recognition of MBA courses under incentive scheme for acquiring higher qualification and existing promotion scheme

In terms of the extant rules, employees who acquire higher/additional qualifications are extended monetary incentive under the scheme for acquiring higher qualification as well as the benefit of additional marks under the existing promotion scheme. The basic intent of these incentive is to motivate employees to acquire professional qualifications that qualitatively improve their performance at work. However, for purposes of eligibility under these schemes, it is necessary that the various technical and management programmes are recognised/approved by University Grant Commission (UGC), Distance Education Council (DEC), IGNOU and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Over the period of time, it is seen that there has been mushrooming of Institutions which have been extending Management programmes on full- time/part-time/distance education basis of varied durations. In this regard, several issues have been raised........