Meera Kumari Khatik v. State of Rajasthan & Ors.

[2026:RJ-JD:52387]

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
AT JODHPUR

S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 23258/2026
CNR: RJHC010970392026 | URN: CW / 40157U / 2026

Meera Kumari Khatik ----Petitioner
Versus
(1) The State Of Rajasthan, Through Secretary, Department Of Administrative Reforms, Govt. Of Rajasthan, Secretariat, Jaipur. (2) The Director, Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Bikaner. (3) The Joint Director, Secondary Education, Udaipur Zone, Udaipur. (4) The Secretary, Rajasthan Staff Selection Board, State Agricultural Management Institute Campus, Durgapura, Jaipur. (5) The Board Of Secondary Education Rajasthan Ajmer, Through Its Secretary. ----Respondents

For Petitioner(s): Mr. Omprakash Kumawat
For Respondent(s): Mr. NK. Mehta, DGC; Mr. Manish Patel

[NyayVidhan notes: Stored from the official Rajasthan High Court PDF of the order (hcraj, CW 23258/2026, 2 pages, uploaded 26.10.2026). (1) The order's opening paragraph, which sets out the prayer, carries no number in the print; paragraphs 2-5 are the Court's own numbers. (2) The cause title is abridged: the petitioner's parentage, age and address are omitted, and the respondents' numbers are shown as (1)-(5). (3) The order prints no 'Reportable' mark. (4) The quoted prayer, with its items numbered '1-', '2-' and '3-' as printed, is kept inline within the opening paragraph. (5) 'Class-IV Employee Direct Recruitment-2024' in paragraph 2 is divided at a line end in the print ('Recruitment-' / '2024') and is joined here. The text is otherwise as printed, including the mixed quotation marks in the prayer. Page furniture (running heads, page numbers, upload/download stamps, the staff lines and the TCPDF line) is removed. The PDF is authoritative.]

[Source: Rajasthan High Court, hcraj.nic.in — order dated 26.10.2026.]

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KULDEEP MATHUR

Order

26/10/2026

By way of filing the present writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:- “It is, therefore, most humbly and respectfully prayed that this writ petition may kindly be allowed and: 1-By appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may kindly be directed to allow the petitioner to participate in the recruitment process of Class-IV in pursuance to the advertisement dated 12.12.2024 (Annex.1) in her respective category SC/Female. 2-The respondents may kindly be directed to consider the petitioner's gender as "Female" in place of 'Third Gender' which she inadvertently filled up in her application form. 3-The respondents may kindly be directed to afford appointment to the petitioner as Class-IV employee in pursuance to the advertisement dated 12.12.2024 (Annex.1) if she is otherwise found eligible. ...”

2. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and upon perusal of the material available on record, this Court finds that, while submitting her application form for the post of Class-IV Employee pursuant to the Class-IV Employee Direct Recruitment-2024, the petitioner inadvertently mentioned her gender as ‘Third Gender’ instead of ‘Female’.

3. Although learned counsel for the respondent Selection Board submits that, at this belated stage, the Board cannot accede to the petitioner’s request for correction of her gender in the application form, as she failed to avail the various opportunities granted to her to make the necessary corrections, upon being queried by this Court, learned counsel was unable to dispute the fact that the petitioner is a female candidate and does not belong to the third-gender category.

4. In view of the aforesaid and having regard to the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the present writ petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to consider and process the petitioner’s candidature under the correct gender category, i.e., ‘Female’. In the event that the petitioner finds place in the merit list, the respondents shall accord her appointment to the post of Class-IV Employee in accordance with law. It is made clear that this order shall not be treated as a precedent in any other case.

5. Stay petition and all pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of.

(KULDEEP MATHUR),J