Supreme Court Grants Relief To Judiciary Aspirant, Sets Aside UPPSC's Rejection Of Candidature For One Day's Delay In Receiving Form

The Supreme Court on Friday (January 19) set aside a decision of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to reject the application of a candidate for the Judicial Service (Junior Division) Examination and directed the UPPSC to declare the results of the petitioner.

“An order that the rejection of an application of a petitioner at the hands of the state commission shall not come in the way of the declaration of the petitioner's result.”, the Bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Sudhanshu Dhulia pronounced.

The Court set aside the impugned order of the UPPSC that rejected the candidature of the petitioner-candidate to appear in the Mains Examination.

“Impugned order is set aside. As we direct the respondent state commission to declare the result of the petitioner and send the result to the State of Uttar Pradesh," the bench read out the operative portion of the order.

The case relates to the denial of the respondent UPPSC to allow one Sadaf Imran to appear in the Judicial Service (Junior Division) Main Examination – 2022 conducted by the UPPSC in the month of May 2023. The petitioner had cleared the preliminary examination and therefore was eligible to appear in the mains examination. However, the UPPSC refused to allow the petitioner to appear in the Mains exam on the ground that she had failed to submit the hard copies of the mains examination application form within the time period, as it reached the commission by a delay of one working day.

It was contended by the petitioner that due to deficiency of services on the part of the Post Office, her application form reached the commission's office with a delay of one working day. Further, it was contended by the petitioner that the Mains Examination application form was duly submitted online and accepted by the UPPSC, but still, she was denied to appear in the Mains examination, and her candidature to appear in the examination was cancelled.

The petitioner appealed before the UPPSC against the cancellation of her candidature, but eventually her appeal was rejected by the Commission. Challenging this order, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution claiming that her fundamental right to appear in the examination under Article 21 is violated.

It is worthwhile to mention that the court on 22.05.2023 granted interim relief to the petitioner by directing the Commission to provisionally allow the petitioner to appear in the Mains examination.

Consequently, the petitioner cleared the Mains examination and was found eligible to appear in the interview.

On 21.11.2023, the court asked the Commission to submit the interview result of the petitioner in a sealed cover for the perusal of the court. Thereafter, the court reserved its judgment on 12.12.2023 after hearing both the parties.

Case : Sadaf Imran v. UPPSC. W.P.(C) No. 581/2023

Click Here To Read/Download Order