Punjab-Haryana High Court
Harvinder Singh vs State Of Punjab And Ors on 3 July, 2023
Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:083345
CWP-17436-2013 (O&M) 1 2023:PHHC:083345
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
CWP-17436-2013 (O&M)
Reserved on: 14.02.2023
Date of decision: 03.07.2023
Harvinder Singh
....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab and others
..Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR JUSTICE ANIL KSHETARPAL
Present:- Mr.D.S.Patwalia, Sr. Advocate with
Mr. A.S.Chadha, Advocate for the petitioner
Mr. D.K.Singal, Addl. AG, Punjab
Mr. Gurnam Singh, Advocate for respondent no.5 to 7
ANIL KSHETARPAL, J
1. The experience during the last five months after having been
assigned the roster of the Punjab Govt. Service shows more often than
not the Punjab Public Service Commission, Punjab Subordinate Service
Selection Board and the Departmental Selection Committees constituted
by the Government or the Public Sector undertaking to take liberties to
infringe the well settled legal position resulting in over burdening the
dockets of the Courts. Driven by a painful experience of facing this
situation on every Court working day this observation is being made. It
is expected that the competent authorities at the highest level will take
note of these observations in order to implement the steps to avoid
chances of such occurrences at regular intervals.
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2. Back to the facts. The petitioner while filing the writ of
Certiorari to quash the selection and appointment of respondent no. 5 to
7 as the Assistant Directors in the Department of Sports, prays for
issuance of a writ in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondent to
consider him for the appointment.
3. The relevant facts, in brief, are required to be noticed in
order to grasp the pivotal issue which requires adjudication. The
recruitment notice to invite applications from the eligible candidates for
recruitment to 13 posts of the Assistant Directors in the Department of
Sport and Youth Services, Punjab, was issued on 09.04.2013. Clause (3),
(5) and clause (e) of the Important Note reads as under:-
"3. Essential Qualifications
a) For candidates belonging to
General category:
i) Should be M.A Second Division
from a recognized University.
ii) Should be a Graduate of a
recognized university with Social Science as one of
the subjects. Provided that preference will be given to
M.A in any subject of social sciences.
iii) Should have an experience of
National Service Scheme or National Cadet Corps for
a minimum period of two years.
Note: Preference will be given to those who have
worked in the student's welfare, sports and cultural
organization and youth welfare activities.
b) For Ex-Serviceman:-
i) Should be Graduate of a
recognized University.
ii) Should have held a post not below
the rank of Lieutenant in the Armed Forces of the
Union and should have served as Commissioned
Officer, for a minimum period of five years.
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Provided that preference will be given to
those persons who have served as an National Cadet
Corps Officer for a minimum period of two years or
National Service Scheme.
c) Punjabi of Matric or its equivalent standard.
Qualification of Punjabi is essential for these
posts relaxable for Sikh Migrants upto the extent that
they will have to acquire such qualification within
two years after joining the service failing which their
services shall liable to be terminated). For this
purpose a Matriculation or its equivalent certificate
for having passed Punjabi will be necessary.
xxxxxx
5. Submission of Application Form:
Candidates May Download the Application
Form from the website www.ppsc.gov.in OR obtain
the Application Form from the office of Punjab Public
Service Commission, Baradari Gardens, Patiala w.e.f
12/04/2012 and submit to the Secretary, Punjab
Public Service Commission, Baradari Gardens,
Patiala.
Application form must reach the office of
Secretary, Punjab Public Service Commission,
Patiala, latest by 5:00 pm on or before 14/05/2012
alongwith prescribed fee and documents.
Responsibility for any postal delay will be that of the
candidate.
Application forms that are wrongly filled
or incomplete or received late, or not accompanied by
the requisite fee and attested copies of certificates
regarding Date of Birth, Degree, Matriculation
Certificate, Experience other requisite certificates
and three identical recent passport size photographs
shall be summarily rejected. The Commission's
decision in this regard will be final.
xxxxx
(e) APPLICANTS MUST POSSESS THE
REQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS &
EXPERIENCE BY THE LAST DATE FOR THE
RECEIPT OF APPLICATION I.E 14/05/2012."
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4. The candidature of the petitioner was rejected on the ground
that he is not eligible. On the one hand, the petitioner claims that he has
the requisite experience of NSS/NCC of two years before the cut off date
whereas the stand of the Punjab Public Service Commission, the State
Government as well as the private respondents is that the petitioner does
not possess the requisite experience. It is the stand of the petitioner that
he, while doing his Graduation, has been attending NSS/NCC programs
and hence, such experience is sufficient. Whereas the private
respondents posses the necessary experience as NSS program officers.
5. It is evident that the recruitment notice does not throw
sufficient light on this aspect of the matter. It is not provided that the
candidate was required to have experience of working as Program
Officer. However, one thing is clear that during is study the petitioner
has been attending camps organized by the NCC which may not be
sufficient experience for the post of the Assistant Director. However,
there is lack of clarity in the recruitment notice. The constitutional
authority is expected to issue recruitment notice with sufficient clarity in
order to avoid any scope for entertaining reasonable doubt. Be that as it
may. In view of the aforesaid stand of the respondents, rejection of the
candidature of the petitioner does not require interference by this Court.
6. Learned senior counsel representing the petitioner while
drawing the attention of the Court to a tabulated information compiled in
para 11 of the writ petition, which is extracted as under, submits that the
Punjab Public Service Commission was not justified in permitting the
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private respondents to submit their experience certificates, which were
issued after the cut off date:-
Name Date of issuance of NSS/NCC Annexures
certificate
Preet 11.10.2012 Annex P-9
Malkit Singh 08.10.2012 Annex P-10
Raghvir Singh 17.10.2012 Annex P-11
Jaspal Singh 13.10.2012 Annex P-12
7. He relies upon a judgment passed in 'Bedanga Talukdar vs.
Saifudaullah Khan and others' (2011) 12 SCC 85 and the judgment of
the Full Bench in Indu Gupta vs. Director, Sports Punjab and others
AIR 1999 (P&H) 319.
8. On the other hand, the learned State counsel submits that
State Service Commission uniformly permitted all the candidates to
submit their documents at the time of interview. It is submitted that
experience/eligibility was counted only upto the cut off date i.e
14.05.2012.
9. Learned counsel representing the selected candidates while
referring to the judgments in Charles K Skaria and others vs. Dr.
C.Mathew and others (1980) 2 SCC 752, Seema Kumar Sharma vs.
State of Himachal Pradesh 1998(9) SCC 128 and Dolly Chhanda vs.
Chairman, JEE 2005 (9)SCC 779 to contend that such cut off date is
though sacrosent, however, the requirement of the requisite documents
before the cut off date is only directory.
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10. This Court has considered the submissions. The
observations made by this Court in the opening part of the judgment
were necessary in view of the conflicting situation. It is evident that the
recruitment notice specifically provides that a candidate must annex all
the necessary documents alongwith the application before the cut off
date including the experience certificate. Admittedly, no public notice
was given by the Punjab Public Service Commission to permit the
applicants to submit the additional documents, after the cut off date. On
09.02.2023, after hearing learned counsel representing the parties at
some length, the following order was passed:-
"Heard the learned counsel representing
the parties at some length.
Learned senior counsel representing the
petitioner, while drawing the attention of the Court to
a recruitment notice dated 09.04.2012 (Annexure P-1)
submits that there was no provision in the said notice
for submitting the additional documents including the
certificate of experience after the cut off date. He
submits that as per clause (e) of the important note,
the application was required to be submitted,
complete in all respects, by the last date of the receipt
of application i.e 14.05.2012, whereas the certificate
issued in favour of the selected candidates i.e
respondent no.4 to 7 are dated 11.10.2012,
08.10.2012, 17.10.2012 and 13.10.2012, respectively.
Learned counsel representing the State
submits that since the applications of the selected
candidates were found without the requisite
experience certificate, hence, in the facts of the case,
they were permitted to submit the experience
certificate at the time of the scrutiny of the
documents.
On a Court question, "As to whether
such opportunity was given to all the candidates or
not?" the learned State counsel prays for a short
adjournment.
List on 14.02.2023, in the urgent list.
No further request for an adjournment
shall be entertained."
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11. In compliance to the aforesaid order, an additional affidavit
of the Secretary, Punjab Service Commission has been filed to contend
that on 05.10.2012, the names of the provisionally eligible candidates as
well as the names of the ineligible candidates alongwith remarks giving
reasons for their ineligibility were uploaded on the Commisssion's
website. Thereafter, respondent no.4 and 5 submitted their
representation with experience certificate on 10th and 11th October, 2012,
respectively. Thereafter, many of the ineligible candidates also
represented and submitted documents to remove their shortcomings as
mentioned in the list on the Commission's website. All the candidates
were represented equally.
12. On a careful reading of the judgment passed by the Full
Bench in Indu Gupta's case (supra), it is evident that while answering
the first question, the Court declared that a candidate in view of the terms
and conditions of the brochure is obliged to submit all the certificates
required to annex alongwith the application and submit the same
complete in all the aspects before the cut off date. In default thereto, no
obligation is imposed upon the authorities concerned to entertain such
application or grant seat to that candidate. On a careful reading of the
judgment in Charles K Skaria's case (supra), it becomes evident that it
relates to admission in courses in higher professional education. That the
Special Secretary to the Government issued a communication to the
selection Committee after noticing that the students of College,
Trivandarum are placed at a disadvantage on account of delay in
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declaration of result, ordered entertainment of the diploma certificate
before finalization of the selection in the Post Graduate Course. In that
context, the Supreme Court held that the requirement of attaching
diploma with application is directory. Similarly, the order in Seema
Kumar Sharma's case (supra) is a short order in the peculiar facts of the
case. The Court, on examination of the record, found that the certificate
as claimed by the appellant was part of the record. Hence, such
judgment does not as a ratio decidendi lays down that the necessary
requisite documents can be entertained even after the cut off date.
13 In Dolly Chhanda's case (supra), the Court held that the
acceptance of the correct certificate after the due date and during the last
counseling is within the domain of procedure which can be relaxed in the
given case. Hence, the aforesaid judgment also does not as a ratio
decidendi lay down that the cut off date is only directory. In fact, once, a
Full Bench of this Court declared more than 24 years back that it is
obligatory on the part of the candidates to annex all requisite certificates
alongwith an application prior to the last date of submission of that
application then any deviation therefrom unless it is provided in the
Rules or in the recruitment notice is not appropriate. As noticed by the
Supreme Court, such procedural provision can be relaxed. However,
before granting such relaxation a public notice is required to be issued to
enable all candidates to avail that benefit. However, at the most this is an
irregularity.
14. The private respondents are already in service for the last
more than 10 years. Keeping in view the peculiar facts of the case, this
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Court does not find it appropriate to set aside the selection of the private
respondents on account of the aforesaid irregularity, however, at the
same time, this Court, at the cost of repetition, directs the State to take a
policy decision while giving due publicity in the newspapers as well as
by circulation to all the recruiting agencies to uniformly and strictly
adhere to the same.
15. With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed of.
16. All the pending miscellaneous applications, if any, are also
disposed of.
03.07.2023 (ANIL KSHETARPAL)
rekha JUDGE
Whether speaking/reasoned : Yes/No
Whether reportable : Yes/No
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