Courts not expert bodies to decide whether Bachelors Degree in Engineering is equivalent to Degree in Science: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court recently had occasion to observe that Courts are not expert bodies to decide whether or not Bachelors degree in Engineering is equivalent to a Degree in science (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board v. Ambarish Kumar S). .Such tasks should be best left to expert bodies like the University Grant Commission (UGC), a Bench of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and Vishwajith Shetty said. ."The Courts are not the expert bodies who can give a finding that Bachelors degree in Engineering has to be treated equivalent to a degree in Science. It is for the expert bodies like the University Grant Commission to arrive at such a finding and therefore, as the qualification required for the post in question was graduation in science, the appeal preferred by the employer deserves to be allowed and is, accordingly allowed", the order said. .The Court made this observation while allowing a writ appeal filed by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB). The board had challenged the order passed by a single-judge on September 3, 2020, which had directed the BWSSB to treat a degree in engineering as a bachelor’s degree in science and consider the candidature of seven applicants, all BE degree holders, for the posts of assistant/clerk. .The BWSSB had invited applications for the post of ‘assistant’ and the qualification prescribed was “degree in arts/commerce/science of a recognised university and one-year duration course in computer basics.” .The BE degree holders requested the BWSSB to consider their candidature contending that BE degree should be treated as a degree in science. Since the Board did not yield to their request, they moved the High Court. .The single-judge held that since the term ‘science’ had not been defined anywhere, it cannot be limited to include only a bachelor degree in pure science. .The BWSSB challenged the single-judge order before Division Bench.The counsel for the appellant argued that by no stretch of imagination can a degree in Engineering be treated as a graduation in science as they are two different disciplines. Further, the ratio of the Judgment in the case of Zahoor Ahmed Rather and others vs Sheikh Imtiyaz Ahmad and Others was not applied correctly by single-judge, it was added. .Countering this, the counsel appearing for the respondents argued that a degree in engineering is certainly a degree in science as the former also forms part of science stream. Therefore, the single-judge was justified in holding that the respondents are entitled to participate in the process of selection..After going through the rival arguments, the Division Bench, quoting Supreme Court’s decision in the Zahoor Ahmed case, stated that as a public employer, the State has to take into account the social perspectives that require creation of job opportunities across the societal structure..Further, it said that the employer is entitled to prescribe the qualifications as a condition for eligibility and the function of judicial review is not to expand upon the ambit of such prescribed qualifications..With these observations, the Court allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the single-judge. .[Read Order]