Applications Reaching Recruiter After Deadline Can't Be Considered Even If Delay Caused By Post Office: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that though the post office acts as an agent of the recruiter, application forms must reach the concerned authority on or before the last date of submission.

Justice Vikas Budhwar added that a recruiter cannot be made to wait indefinitely on the pretext that the form was sent to the post office on time.

“Respectfully following the judgments in the case of the Neena Chaturvedi (supra) and Rajendra Patel (supra), applying the law culled out in the judgment in the case of Neena Chaturvedi (supra) and Rajendra Patel (supra) in the present facts of the case it is apparently clear beyond any shadow of doubt that the though the post office acts as an agent of the respondent but the respondents cannot be bound by any delay on the receipt of the application form and further the respondents cannot be allowed to wait for time immemorial in that regard.” 

Factual Background:

The State Government came up with a policy decision for making short-term appointments of teachers for a period of one year commensurate to the academic session due to the scarcity of teachers. Subsequently, various Government Orders were issued for the modalities for the appointment of teachers, including appointments in Sanskrit Vidyalaya.

Petitioner contended that he applied by submitting his document before the institution as well as through an email to the District Inspector of Schools on 19.06.2023. However, his candidature was not considered and he was not allowed to sit in the interview on the pretext that the application was sent after the last date, i.e., 23.06.2023.

Petitioner relied on the postal endorsement which was dated 19.06.2023 and the email to contend that he had applied within the stipulated time. Reliance was placed on the decision of Allahabad High Court in Neena Chaturvedi Vs. U.P. Public Service Commission contending that once only a solitary mode was provided to send the required documents that too by registered post then the postal department becomes the agent of the respondent. Thus, an application being received by the respondent after the due date is of no consequence since it was sent before the due date.

Counsel for the Respondent argued that according to the notifications, the form had to reach the concerned authority before the last date. However, the Petitioner’s form reached the day after the last date, thus, was not considered. For the purpose of this argument, reliance was placed on another full-bench decision of the Allahabad High Court in Rajendra Patel Vs. State of U.P.

Verdict:

Harmoniously reading the two decisions of the Allahabad High Court, the Court held that the recruiters cannot be made to wait indefinitely for application forms merely because the post office acts as their agent. The application form should be sent in time so that it reaches the concerned authority before the stipulated last date of submission.

The Court observed that the advertisements that lay down clear terms and modalities of applications cannot be altered to suit the needs of individual applicants.

“The Courts of law, in case, gives elasticity and leverage as sought by the writ petitioner then obviously the selection proceedings cannot be concluded as even otherwise law is very clear that cut of date is sometime painful to one and beneficial to other. Since in the present case the application so submitted (hard copy was received after the due date) thus merely because the writ petitioner had communicated the same through Email on 19.06.2023 would not make any difference as the two exercises are dependent which in entirety has not been adhered to.”

Accordingly, the writ petition was dismissed.

Case Title: Pankaj Kumar Priyam vs. State Of U.P. And 2 Others [WRIT - A No. - 10907 of 2023]

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 292

Counsel for Petitioner: Sanjay Maurya

Counsel for Respondent: Shailendra Singh

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