Constable Recruitment | Haryana Govt Can't Ask For Fresh Backward Class Certificate At Second Stage Of Selection: P&H High Court

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has made it clear that the Haryana Staff Service Commission (HSSC) cannot ask for latest Backward Class (BC) certificate at the second stage of selection process when the certificate is filed at the time of Common Eligibility Test (CET).

Justice Jagmohan Bansal said, "In the absence of particular date in the rules or advertisement, last date prescribed for filing application for the advertised post is cut-off date. In the instant case, cut-off date for limited purpose i.e. to upload documents, was last date notified for filing application. The said date had no bearing with the date of BC certificate."

"BC-A or BC-B certificate filed at the time of CET is valid for all intent and purposes. The respondent could not ask for fresh latest BC certificate at the 2nd stage of selection process. Three financial years came to involved in view of peculiar facts and circumstances, thus, BC certificates filed at the time of CET are valid," added the Court.

The Court also said that, no candidate could be transposed from BC category to general category on account of non-submission of fresh latest BC certificate at the second stage.

These observations were made  while hearing a batch of petitions filed by the candidates appearing for police constable recruitment whose application for the reserved BC category was rejected because they submitted caste certificates issued before April 1, 2023.

The petitioners had applied for 5,000 posts of male constable and 1,000 posts of female constable (General Duty) advertised by HSSC in 2024. The recruitment was later re-advertised through a public notice issued in June stating that the candidates had already cleared the CET for Group-C posts, which was a prerequisite for applying.

Candidature of many applicants were rejected in BC Category and they were shifted to General Category. The ground of transposing candidates from BC Category to General Category was that they had submitted BC certificates issued on a date which is prior to cut-off date i.e. April 1, 2023.

The candidates argued that they had initially submitted valid caste certificates linked to the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) system while filing their applications. However, after the selection process began, HSSC arbitrarily introduced a requirement that only certificates issued after April 1, 2023, would be considered valid. Many candidates, unaware of this change, were subsequently disqualified.

The recruitment advertisement had not prescribed any specific cut-off date for certificate submission and their caste status was permanent and did not change annually, unlike financial status, which determines eligibility under the creamy layer criteria, it was submitted.

After examining the submissions, the Court noted that In the present case it is no one's case that BC certificate was not uploaded. The dispute is confined to year of the certificate. There is no judgment where condition of obtaining data from PPP was existing and under consideration of the Court.

Justice Bansal highlighted that by way of bunch of petitions more than thousand candidates have approached the court.

"Mistake or negligence may be on the part of one or few but cannot be on the part of large number of candidates. It shows that there was mis-communication which led to filing of BC certificates of dates other than expected by respondent."

The Court added that merely because of some mis-understanding, candidates who are more meritorious should not be deprived from the post. The petitioners after all are going to hold public post and selection of less meritorious candidates would be prejudicial to the interest of public at large.

The Court further rejected petitioner's argument that they should be permitted to file BC certificates without any cut-off because respondent has made correction in the advertisement after last date for filing application.

"The respondent for the sake clarity and without prejudice to the interest of candidates may remove doubts or carry out small repair" stated the Court while quashing the notification setting the cut-off date.

Title: Naveen and others v. State of Haryana and others

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (PH) 78

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