High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Postponement Of Either Haryana Civil Services Prelims Or Punjab Excise & Taxation Inspector Exam

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the Preliminary Examination of Haryana Civil Services (Executive Branch) and other Allied Services-2022 which is scheduled to be held on May 21. The plea alternatively sought postponement of the examination for post of Excise and Taxation Inspector being conducted by Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board on the same date.

The bench of Justice Survir Sehgal observed:

“Conducting of an examination for thousands of candidates is a herculean task and involves micro and macro planning spread over a period of months. A single person cannot hold the entire recruitment process at ransom. The Court has to weigh the interest of a solitary petitioner with that of teeming number of aspirants.”

The petitioner Parminder Kaur has applied for both the exams and prayed that either of the two examinations may be directed to be deferred. Her counsel submitted that the Punjab Examination, initially scheduled for February 22, was postponed due to technical reasons. The postponement was attributed to the fact that the Punjab Public Service Commission had fixed the examination for recruitment to 159 posts of Civil Judges (Junior Division-cum-Judicial Magistrates) on the same day, the court was told.

The counsel representing Haryana Public Service Commission submitted that a total of 93,600 candidates have applied for appearing in the preliminary examination to be held in 341 centres across the state and only three candidates, including the petitioner, have submitted representations for the postponement on account of clash of dates with the Punjab Examination

Rohit Bansal, Senior DAG, Punjab, representing the S.S.S. Board, submitted that 68,043 candidates have applied for the Punjab Examination, and the process is already at an advanced stage, with admit cards being issued already. He further mentioned that while 60 applicants had requested a postponement, 31 others had requested not to defer the examination. Bansal argyed that further delay would disrupt the recruitment process and create uncertainty for the applicants.

The bench observed that the petitioner had submitted representations to both the HPSC and the S.S.S. Board after the tentative schedule was released.

"Despite the lapse of almost three weeks, even though, she did not receive any response, petitioner did not take any step to approach this Court. This petition has been filed by her when the examination is around the corner. No reason, whatsoever, has been given by the petitioner in the writ petition for the delay. The argument of the counsel that the petitioner was seeking legal advice, is of no avail," said the bench, adding except for the petitioner, no other candidate has approached the court.

The court said the postponement of either of the examinations will not be in the interest of anyone. "On the one hand, the administrative work suffers due to the vacancies of the various government posts and on the other hand, the job aspirants, who may be travelling from different places, are left in the lurch due to uncertainty of the dates for holding the examination," it said, while dismissing the plea.

Case Title: Parminder Kaur v Haryana Public Service Commission CWP-9977-2023

Present:

Mr. Angrej Singh, Advocate andMr. Brijesh, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Kanwal Goyal, Advocate andMr. Govind Tanwar, Advocate for respondent No.1-HPSC.

Mr. Rohit Bansal, Senior DAG, Punjab along withMr. Kulwinder Kaur, Assistant Director, S.S.S. Board, Punjab for respondents No.2 and 4.

Mr. Pankaj Middha, Addl. A.G., Haryana for State-respondent No.3.

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