Uttarakhand HC Directs Public Service Commission To Declare Result Of Candidate Who Deposited Late Fees, Provisionally Appeared In Mains Exam

Uttarakhand High Court has directed the State's Public Service Commission to declare the result of the recruitment process to the Assistant Conservator of Forest by deeming the petitioner who provisionally appeared in the mains exam as a qualified candidate.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Ramesh Chandra Khulbe relied on an interim order of the Supreme Court to give the final judgment in the matter. The court also added that technical grounds should not be cited for rejection of application when the petitioner has qualified in the preliminary examination to the post.

Previously, in the same matter, the High Court had allowed the petitioner to appear in the mains examination on 13th March, 2021.

The court noted that two advertisements were issued by the Commission in 2020 and the latest advertisement granted a grace period of 8 days for those who failed to deposit their documents and fees within the stipulated period. According to the initial advertisement, the application was meant to be submitted on 1st February 2020.

Though the petitioner contacted the Commission on 7th February, 2020 for submitting the fees and documents, it refused to accept the same. The benefit of the grace period was arbitrarily denied to the petitioner by the Commission, the counsel for the petitioner argued. He also made a submission that usually the fees are paid at the preliminary stage itself and the petitioner was not aware until 6th February that fees must be paid for appearing in the main exam as well. The results of the preliminary exam never mentioned any such fees and it was notified only via the advertisement later.

The court then noted that the Commission cannot rely on the first advertisement since the second advertisement supersedes it and the petitioner has a strong case in her favour.

"No harm would be caused to the Commission if the petitioner were allowed to appear in the main Examination on a provisional basis. Thus, the balance of convenience is in favour of the petitioner. Moreover, in case she is denied the right to appear in the Main Examination, an irreparable loss would be caused to her...", the High Court had noted in its interim order. Accordingly, the court had directed the Commission to allow the petitioner to provisionally appear in the main exam and withhold her results till further orders.

In Aakriti Bahuguna v. Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (2019), the High Court had held that the candidate can't be permitted to take the stand that she should be allowed to appear in the main examination when she hasn't paid the prescribed fees or appeared in the main examination due to her failure to secure information from the respondent commission's Website. In any case, the court added that the main examination has already been held and the results have been declared.

However, an appeal was filed before the Supreme Court which issued interim directions, permitting the appellant who had qualified in the preliminary exam to submit the application fees and form within three days. The interim order included a direction to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission to accept the Form/Fee and accept the candidature of the petitioner for the Main Examination if done within three days.

The apex court had also directed the Commission to issue Examination Hall Ticket and permit her for appearing in the exam, though the results should be withheld until further orders.

Relying on the above interim order which was issued pursuant to a similar set of facts, the Uttarakhand High Court observed as below:

"Keeping in view the spirit of the interim order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, we consider that if the petitioner has qualified the preliminary examination, and on some technical ground her application was rejected by the Commission and denied her the chance to appear in the main examination, and by virtue of the order passed by this Court in the interim, as quoted above, she has appeared in the examination, and has come out successful, then in the interest of justice and also in the interest of competition, the result should be declared by the Commission"

After the petitioner appeared in the Main Exams, her result was handed over to the court in a sealed cover earlier. The court directed to Commission to proceed with the recruitment process after seeing that the petitioner has passed the main examination according to the results.

Advocate Abhijay Negi appeared for the petitioner while the Commission's counsel was B.D. Kandpal.

Case Title: Vibhu D/o Dr Bharat Bhushan Chauhan V. Uttarakhand Public Service Commission

Case No: WP (S/B) No. 178/ 2020

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (Utt) 13

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