Gauhati High Court
Pankaj Das vs The State Of Assam And 4 Ors on 19 May, 2022
Author: Kalyan Rai Surana
Bench: Kalyan Rai Surana
Page No.# 1/5
GAHC010092452022
THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT
(HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH)
Case No. : WP(C)/3174/2022
PANKAJ DAS
S/O. LT. SANKAR DAS, R/O. CHARKASHARIPARA, FULERCHAR PT 3, P.O.
FULERCHAR, P.S. SUKCHAR, SOUTH SALMARA MANKACHAR, ASSAM.
VERSUS
THE STATE OF ASSAM AND 4 ORS.
REP. BY THE COMMISSIONER AND SECY. TO THE GOVT. OF ASSAM,
DEPTT. OF HOME AND POLITICAL, DISPUR, GUWAHATI-06, ASSAM.
2:THE COMMISSIONER AND SECY.
TO THE GOVT. OF ASSAM
DEPTT. OF HOME AND POLITICAL
DISPUR
GUWAHATI-06
ASSAM.
3:PRINCIPAL SECRETARY
TO THE GOVT. OF ASSAM
HOME (A) DEPTT.
DISPUR
ASSAM.
4:DIRECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE
ASSAM
ULUBARI
GUWAHATI-06
ASSAM.
5:CHAIRMAN
Page No.# 2/5
STATE LEVEL POLICE RECRUITMENT BOARD
ASSAM
ULUBARI
GUWAHATI-07
Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. P P DAS
Advocate for the Respondent : GA, ASSAM
BEFORE
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE KALYAN RAI SURANA
ORDER
Date : 19-05-2022 Heard Mr. S. Das, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. D. Nath, learned senior Govt. Advocate for the respondents.
2. By filing this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has assailed the result of the petitioner dated 12.05.2022, published in the official website of Chairman, State Level Police Recruitment Board (respondent no.5) as void and illegal and to appoint the petitioner as Constable (Un-armed or Armed branch) in the establishment of the Director General of Police, Assam (respondent no.4).
3. The case projected by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that pursuant to a recruitment advertisement dated 25.04.2018, for recruitment of 5494 constables (Un-armed Branch/ Armed Branch) in Assam Police, 2018, the petitioner had participated in the selection process by submitting all the requisite documents. It is projected that at the time of document verification, all Page No.# 3/5 the documents submitted by the petitioner were verified and accepted to be correct and only thereafter the petitioner was permitted to participate in the recruitment process. It is submitted that after the results were declared in the official website on 12.05.2022, the petitioner had made an attempt to access his mark-sheet on the official website, but was not granted access to his mark-sheet in respect of the Combined Written Examination.
4. It is submitted that the reason for disqualification was totally vague and illegal as it has not been spelt out as to which document furnished by the petitioner was fake and the reason assigned for declaring the document to be fake. It has been submitted that the State respondents, in an arbitrary and illegal manner, filed an FIR on 14.05.2022, only one day after the petitioner had filed this writ petition on 13.05.2022. It is submitted that the petitioner is ready to cooperate with the police for investigation in the matter, but he ought not to be arrayed and/ or treated as an accused.
5. Per contra, the learned senior Govt. Advocate has submitted that pursuant to order dated 13.05.2022, passed by this Court, he had obtained instructions as directed, which reveals that the authorities had received a report that many candidates had submitted "Fake Computer Efficiency Certificates"
from bogus and non-functional institutes during Physical Standard Test and Physical Efficiency Test and therefore, a Committee was constituted by the State Level Police Recruitment Board, Assam to scrutinize and to verify the "Computer Efficiency Certificates" submitted by the candidates. The Committee, with the assistance of the Superintendents of Police of the districts, had verified the genuineness of the "Computer Efficiency Certificate" submitted by the Page No.# 4/5 candidates and as per the enquiry reports received from the District Superintendents of Police, 414 candidates had allegedly submitted fake "Computer Efficiency Certificates". Accordingly, the candidature of 414 candidates have been disqualified and FIR was lodged at CID Headquarter which was registered as CID P.S. case No.5/2022 under section 120B, 420, 468 and 471 IPC.
6. It appears from the instructions produced by the learned senior Govt. Advocate that prior to registration of the CID P.S. Case, a preliminary enquiry was done by a Committee which found out the anamolies and had detected as many as 414 fake certificates. Now, investigation is pending in matter which relates to investigation of the documents of 414 candidates, who had allegedly submitted fake Computer Efficiency Certificates. Hence, the Court is inclined to hold that no purpose would be served to keep this matter pending.
7. In so far as the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner to the effect that only after filing of this writ petition on 13.05.2022 an FIR was lodged on 14.05.2022 for which the process of filing the FIR was illegal, the Court finds the said submission to be absolutely unacceptable for questioning or doubting FIR merely on the said ground.
8. Moreover, the learned counsel for the petitioner has not been able to show any case law on the point that once a document is prima facie verified and a candidate is allowed to participate, in future the State is bound by the principles of estoppel and prevented to subsequently investigate and to disqualify the candidature on finding out that the document submitted were Page No.# 5/5 prima facie fake. Such action of the State is found to be in consonance with Clause 11 of the employment advertisement dated 25.04.2018.
9. It is too well settled that fraud vitiates all solemn acts and that fraud and justice can never dwell together. Therefore, if the candidature of the petitioner was disqualified on the ground of submitting fake documents and the fact was made known to the petitioner by virtue of the result published on the website on 12.05.2022, there would be no impediment for the investigation to be carried out by the concerned State authorities in the matter arising out of the FIR lodged on 14.05.2022. Therefore, no case is made out by the learned counsel for the petitioner for interference with the action taken by the respondents. Thus, no interference is called for in respect of result declared on 12.05.2022 in respect of the petitioner, holding him to be "disqualified because of submission of fake certificate".
10. Accordingly, the writ petition stands dismissed at the motion stage without issuance of notice on the respondents.
11. The instructions produced by the learned senior Govt. Advocate is retained on record.
JUDGE Comparing Assistant