Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

12. It is not in dispute that the petitioner is a Scheduled Caste. Mere error in filling up an application will not change his caste status. During the time of document verification, the petitioner had submitted his caste certificate depicting to be Scheduled Caste. The Commission could have corrected the error at that time. This human error is glorified by the Commission by declining to accede to the request for change of category at the time of document verification. It is not in dispute that the petitioner has secured high marks and would

- 10 -

definitely come within the zone of consideration, if he was treated as a Scheduled Caste candidate. Treating him as a general merit or Scheduled Tribe candidate has taken away the consideration for appointment of the petitioner. The glorification of a trivial human error has resulted in loss of appointment to the petitioner, a Scheduled Caste candidate.

14. The learned counsel for the petitioner would now submit that a final select list is also notified by the Commission during the pendency of the writ petition and therefore, a direction is required to be given to the Commission to include the name of the petitioner in the select list according to his merit vis-à-vis the candidate who is less meritorious than that of the petitioner in the category of Scheduled Caste. Here again the learned counsel appearing for the Commission submits that this would open Pandora's box and become a precedent. I decline to accept the submission of the Commission, if this order opens up Pandora's box; so be it, if it becomes a precedent; so be that. This Court would not turn a deaf ear to a cry of a Scheduled Caste candidate who has scored high marks, despite the trials and tribulations throughout that they face to lose the opportunity of getting selected for trivial reasons. The Commission ought to have corrected the trivial human error when the petitioner pointed it