Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur

Leena Gehlot vs The Secretary (2025:Rj-Jd:28778) on 3 July, 2025

Author: Rekha Borana

Bench: Rekha Borana

[2025:RJ-JD:28778]

      HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT
                       JODHPUR
                  S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 8995/2025

Leena Gehlot W/o Harshvardhan Bhati D/o Bhanwar Singh
Gehlot, Aged About 36 Years, Resident Of Azad Mohalla, Near
Charbhuja Temple, Kurabad District Udaipur Rajasthan- 313703.
                                                                     ----Petitioner
                                       Versus
1.       The Secretary, Rajasthan Public Service Commission,
         Ajmer.
2.       The Secretary, College Education Jaipur.
                                                                  ----Respondents


For Petitioner(s)           :        Mr. Navneet Singh Birkh
For Respondent(s)           :        Ms. Yashi Khandelwal for
                                     Mr. Praveen Khandelwal, AAG
                                     Mr. Tarun Joshi, through VC
                                     Mr. Vikram Singh



                HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE REKHA BORANA

Order

03/07/2025

1. The present writ petition has been filed with a specific prayer

that the respondent Department be directed to consider the

change in category of the petitioner from 'General' to

'Economically Weaker Section' (EWS).

2. The case of the petitioner is that although she had a valid

EWS certificate issued in her favour even on the date of filling up

of the application form, the form was erroneously filled up in the

General category by the e-mitra. At that point of time, her father-

in-law having met with an accident, she could not personally

pursue the correction application for the change of category within

the time granted i.e. from 28.08.2023 to 06.09.2023.

[2025:RJ-JD:28778] (2 of 5) [CW-8995/2025]

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the above

being an error committed by e-mitra, deserves to be condoned

and the petitioner deserves to be permitted to change her

category from 'General' to 'EWS'.

4. Counsel submits that appropriate application was submitted

by the petitioner way back on 11.12.2023 i.e. even before the

admit card for the examination been issued and till that point of

time, no right had accrued to any third party and hence, change in

category ought to have been permitted.

5. Counsel further submits that even till date, as the result has

not been declared, no right of any third party has accrued and

hence, even if the mistake as committed by the petitioner is

permitted to be cured, no third party would be affected. He

submits that the mistake in question is a trivial one and deserves

to be cured.

6. In support of his submissions, counsel relied upon the

Hon'ble Apex Court judgment in Vashist Narayan Kumar Vs.

The State of Bihar & Ors.; 2024 SCC Online SC 2 and the

Division Bench judgment of this Court in Reena Choudhary Vs.

State of Rajasthan & Ors.; D.B. Special Appeal Writ No.

1175/2024 (decided on 02.01.2025).

7. Per contra learned counsel for the respondent Department

while relying upon the judgment of Division Bench of this Court in

Piyush Kaviya & Ors. Vs. The Rajasthan Public Service

Commission & Ors.; D.B. Special Appeal Writ No. 198/2018

(decided on 10.04.2018) & other connected matters and the latest

Division Bench judgment of this Court at Jaipur in Rajasthan

Public Service Commission Vs. Kavita Meena; D.B. Special

[2025:RJ-JD:28778] (3 of 5) [CW-8995/2025]

Appeal Writ No.923/2023 (decided on 01.03.2024) submitted

that the present is a clear case of the change of category which

cannot be permitted at this stage.

8. Counsel submits that it is not a mistake which can be cured

at a subsequent stage whereas it is clear on record that the

petitioner was negligent while filling up the application form as she

knowingly filled up the form in General category. The Department

even granted sufficient time for correction in the online application

forms from 28.08.2023 to 06.09.2023. The petitioner did not avail

the said opportunity and moved an application in the month of

December 2023 long after the said time granted by the

Department having elapsed.

9. Heard the counsels and perused the record.

10. The issue whether the petitioner can be permitted to change

her category from General to EWS would not retain this Court for

long as the same rests covered by the judgments passed by this

Court in Piyush Kaviya (supra) and Kavita Meena (supra).

11. In Kavita Meena (supra), the Court while dealing with the

earlier Division Bench judgment in Kavita Choudhary Vs. The

Registrar (Examination) & Anr.; D.B. Special Appeal Writ

No. 1700/2017 (decided on 01.11.2017) observed that any

bonafide mistake which does not affect the third party can be

allowed to be cured. However, when the mistake is not cured even

after an opportunity is given to correct/alter the application form,

any candidate cannot be allowed to keep on changing or

correcting the application form. Therein, the Court observed and

held as under:

[2025:RJ-JD:28778] (4 of 5) [CW-8995/2025]

"28. None of the aforesaid decisions laid down any law of general application in all the cases that irrespective of the last date for submission of the application form or irrespective of the examination system and examination providing for time bound correction in the application, mistakes could be allowed to be corrected and modified at any point of time."

12. Further, while relying upon the judgments of Piyush Kaviya

(supra) and Rajasthan Public Service Commission Vs. Yogita

Yaduvanshi; D.B. Special Appeal Writ No. 804/2020 (decided

on 19.03.2021), the Court observed and held as under:

"33. The sanctity and purity of the examination system has to be maintained, which is in public interest. If individual candidates are allowed to carry out correction/ modification/amendments in their application form in violation of the procedural norms laid down in the advertisement, there will be no end to the selection process and it will become difficult, if not impossible, to complete the selection process. Timely completion of selection process is in larger public interest and the same cannot be allowed to be derailed merely because certain candidates, despite having been granted sufficient opportunity under the system and procedure, failed to avail the benefit. In sum and substance, individual interest has to yield to public interest. That being the legal position, in our view, the learned Single Judge committed an error in granting relief."

13. Applying the above ratio to the present matter, this Court is

of the clear opinion that filling up of the application form by the

petitioner in General category cannot be termed to be a trivial

mistake. Admittedly, time was granted by the Department to cure

the defects, if any, in the application form and the same was not

[2025:RJ-JD:28778] (5 of 5) [CW-8995/2025]

availed by the petitioner. As observed in Kavita Meena (supra),

if individual candidates are allowed to carry out

correction/modification/amendments in their application form in

violation of the procedural norms laid down in the advertisement,

there will be no end to the selection process and it will become

difficult to complete the same. The individual interest has to yield