Allahabad HC rejects plea to include BTech graduates for junior analyst recruitment

LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Monday rejected a plea seeking to make BTech graduates in Food Technology, Dairy Technology, Oil Technology and Biotechnology eligible for recruitment to 417 Junior Analyst (Food) posts in Uttar Pradesh. A division bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Amitabh Kumar Rai in Lucknow held that the state government was competent to prescribe educational qualifications for posts in its own departmental cadre.

The order came on a petition filed by Pankaj Kumar and others, challenging the service rules amended in 2020 and the recruitment advertisement. The petitioners argued that the Food Safety and Standards Rules, 2011, recognise bachelor's degrees in several disciplines as eligible qualifications for the post of Food Analyst.

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They contended that candidates with BTech degrees in the relevant disciplines should also be eligible for the Junior Analyst (Food) posts. The state government opposed the plea, submitting that Junior Analyst (Food) and Food Analyst were two distinct posts.

While Junior Analyst (Food) belongs to the state government's departmental cadre, appointments to the post of Food Analyst are governed by central law and the rules framed under it, the government said.

Accepting the state's submissions, the court observed that the central rules prescribing qualifications for Food Analysts did not require the state government to include every alternative qualification for recruitment to Junior Analyst (Food) posts. Finding no merit in the challenge to the recruitment rules, the bench dismissed the petition.