Third division bachelor, master's grads eligible for jobs, LHC rules

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside a condition closing the door on government employment to graduates having third division in bachelor and master's degrees.

The high court, which took up a case of a candidate who was refused a public sector opportunity on the said condition, observed that according to the Recruitment Policy 2017-18 for Educators and Assistant Education Officers, there was no direction to reject a candidate on the mere basis of having a third division in higher degrees.

Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir released a nine-page judgement.

In his petition, Mehboobul Hassan, a citizen, said he had submitted his application for the elementary school educator in science and mathematics to the Punjab School Education Department.

After the scrutiny of his papers, Hassan said he passed a test conducted by the National Testing Service but his name was not included in the final merit list.

During the proceedings, the counsel for the government argued that according to the service rules and relevant notifications, the candidates are required to have secured at least a second division in the graduation programme for the post of ESE.

He said since the candidate did not have a second division in his degree, he did not fit the bill.

However, the court observed if the candidate was not eligible, he should not have been permitted to sit in the test in the first place.

The programme monitoring and implementation unit of the provincial government had released a notification concerning the method of recruitment in the department.

The judgement said that in the said case, the candidate also holds a master's degree.

"It is clear that a master's degree holder regardless of the division is eligible for the job," the court ruled.

The judgement said that the notification released by the monitoring and implementation unit did not apply to master's degree holders.

The LHC while accepting the petitioner's request ordered the education department to review the candidate's application in light of the verdict.