The Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in the case of Ms Charu Kain vs High Court of Delhi consisting of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan reiterated that the mistakes which do not prejudice any other person, should be permitted to be rectified.
Facts
The petitioner had appeared for the Delhi Judicial Service Preliminary Examination, 2022 as a General Category candidate. In the event she is considered as a reserved category candidate (SC), she would make the cut off for appearing in the Mains examination. She secured 119.5 marks, which is admittedly above the cut off (115.5 marks). There were eight vacancies for the Reserved Category and therefore, the cut off mark for the appearing was fixed based on eighty candidates clearing the preliminary examination. She was not considered in this category as she had applied under the General Category and the cut off for the General Category was higher than 119.5. She claimed that when the admit cards were issued, she realised her mistake in applying under the General Category. She did not take any immediate steps to correct the said error as according to her, the time was too short. She appeared for the preliminary examination and filed the present petition only after discovering that she would make the cut off if she was considered as a Reserved Category candidate.
Contentions Made
Petitioner: She should not be penalised at this stage since no prejudice is caused to any other person. There is no dispute that the petitioner belongs to a SC and is entitled to appear as a SC category candidate. Reliance was placed on Kavita Choudhary v. Registrar (Examination).
Respondent: If the petitioner had correctly filled her application form and applied under the reserved category, she would have been placed on the order of merit after the candidate ranked at number 58 in the order of merit. Resultantly, the two candidates presently at Rank nos. 80 and 81, would not qualify for appearing in the mains examination. Since they are not a party to the present petition, they cannot be prejudiced.
Observations of the Court
The Bench concurred with the view in Kavita Choudhary(supra) and observed that a person committing a bona fide mistake, which does not cause prejudice to any person, should be given an opportunity to rectify the same. In the present case, the petitioner’s mistake was a bona fide one; she derived no benefit from submitting an incorrect application disclosing her category as the general category. She had further compounded the mistake by not seeking immediate rectification as soon as she became aware of the same.
The Bench went on to observe that there was no prejudice caused to any person and the matter regarding the examination has not proceeded to a stage, which renders it inapposite to correct this mistake. It was also observed that the two candidates, who were currently placed at Rank nos. 80 and 81 cannot be prejudiced.
Judgment
The Bench allowed the present petition. The petitioner was to submit an undertaking to the respondent requesting it to permit her to rectify the application to disclose her category as an SC category and to treat her candidature accordingly. The respondent was to process the same and issue admit cards to the petitioner along with other candidates. The respondent was also directed to issue admit cards to candidates currently listed at Rank nos. 80 and 81, who would after inclusion of the petitioner, would be ranked at Rank nos. 81 and 82.w
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