Allahabad High Court
Prashant Kumar Dwivedi And Another vs State Of U.P. And 2 Others on 28 August, 2020
Author: Pankaj Bhatia
Bench: Pankaj Bhatia
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 38 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 5383 of 2020 Petitioner :- Prashant Kumar Dwivedi And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Akarsh Dwivedi,Radha Kant Ojha (Senior Adv) Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,M.N. Singh Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
Heard Sri Radha Kant Ojha, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Akarsh Dwivedi, counsel for the petitioners and Sri M.N. Singh, counsel for the Commission and Standing Counsel for the State-respondent.
Counsel for the petitioners has argued that the U.P.P.S.C., Prayagraj had published an Advertisement No. A-2/E-1/2018 dated 6.7.2018 for UPPSC combined State/ Upper Subordinate Services (PCS) (General Recruitment/Physically Handicapped-Backlog/Special Recruitment) Examination, 2018 and Assistant conservator of Forest (A.C.F.)/Range Forest Officer (R.F.O.), Services Examination-2018. The petitioners in terms of the said advertisement had applied for the post of Principal, G.I.C. and participated in the preliminary examination held on 28.10.2018 and were declared qualified on 30th March, 2019.
Counsel for the petitioners argues that in terms of the requirements, the petitioners had to fill a form in format no. 2 (Page-52) giving the experience of the petitioners. The said form was to be countersigned by the Principal/Manager/Registrar and countersigned by the Joint Director of Education of the Mandal concerned. The whole purpose of the said experience certificate was to verify the statement of experience as given by the candidate by the authorities concerned and thus two authorities were specified for signature on the form as appended as format no. 2.
Counsel for the petitioners further argues that the mains examination were held in between 18.10.2019 to 22.10.2019 and on 23rd June, 2019, the results of the main were declared. After the declaration of the result, an advertisement dated 27th June, 2020 was issued by the Under Secretary, U.P.P.S.C. to the effect that all the candidates who have qualified for the appointment on the post of Principal and who have filed an experience certificate, however, the said experience certificates are not countersigned by the Joint Director of Education, they were given one more opportunity to get the said certificate countersigned by the Joint Director of Education and present the same at the time of the interview. The said advertisement contains the list of candidates who had qualified and were called for the interview.
Counsel for the petitioner argues that in terms of the advertisement issued and while issuing the guidelines for filling the form, it was clarified that the certificates uploaded, if found incomplete in any respect would lead to rejection of the candidature and this condition should have been strictly enforced instead of giving one more opportunity to the candidates to rectify the defects as has been done by means of the advertisement dated 27th June, 2020. Counsel for the petitioner further argues that the action of the Commission would lead to large scale fraud as the candidates would now manage the certificates, which were to be given at the time of the filling of the form and thus would discriminate the candidates, who had filled the correct form at the time of the filling of the form. It is informed at the bar that the last date for filling of the form was 29th May, 2019.
Counsel for the respondent-Commission Sri M.N. Singh on the other hand argues that this action of the Service Commission was only done with a view to enable the students, who had erroneously filed the experience certificate, which were not countersigned by the Joint Director of Education. He also argues that the apprehension of the counsel for the petitioner is not justified as the Commission would not permit altogether new certificates of experience to be furnished by the candidates at the time of the interview and only those certificates which were signed by the Principal/Manager/Registrar prior to 29th May, 2019 and uploaded along with form would be allowed to be got countersigned from the Joint Director and no form which is signed by the Principal/Manager/Registrar after 29th May, 2019 shall be entertained in pursuance to the advertisement dated 27th June, 2020. The submission of Sri M.N. Singh is fortified by the decision of the Commission dated 27.7.2001, 7.6.2011 and 9.8.2019, annexed as SCA-3, SCA-4 and SCA-5.
It is thus clear from the submissions made at the bar that the advertisement dated 27th June, 2020 shall be confined only to those students, who had uploaded the form of experience but in the said certificate of experience the signatures of the Joint Director could not be obtained.
In view of the stand taken by the Commission, it is clear that the apprehensions of Sri Ojha for the petitioner is no more justified as only the forms filled by the candidates prior to 29th May, 2019 at the time of uploading the form would be allowed to be got countersigned by the Joint Director of Education in the prescribed form.
Sri M.N. Singh also informs the Court that the Commission has taken this decision only with a view to encourage the candidates, who had committed slight errors in uploading the form and thus no fault can be found with the said action of the Commission.
In view of the findings recorded above and the clarifications issued by this Court, the writ petition does not require any further adjudication and is accordingly disposed off.
Order Date :- 28.8.2020 SR