Submitting Invalid But Genuine Certificate In Recruitment Process Is Neither Fraud Nor Misrepresentation For Disqualifying Candidate: J&K High Court

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court held that submitting a certificate issued by an unrecognised organisation could at best be considered as invalid for the purposes of recruitment but same does not amount to fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the candidate.The name of the petitioner was dropped from the provisional selection list on the ground that he had submitted a fake National Sports Certificate for the post of Physical Education Teacher.A bench of Justices Rajnesh Oswal, Justice Mohd Yousuf Wani held that the certificate submitted by the petitioner though was invalid for the purpose of determining the merit of the petitioner but same was neither fake nor forged. The court added that at the most while scrutinizing the documents submitted by the candidates, respondent could have excluded the certificate.The court took note of the Crime Branch report dated 03.07.2013 which confirmed that the certificate was genuine but from an unrecognized body, thus not fraudulent.The court also noted that there were many candidates who had submitted fake certificates and against whom FIR was registered for cheating and forgery but the petitioner was not accused in the said FIR, reinforcing that he did not commit any fraud.The court added that had the petitioner submitted the fake or forged certificate, then the respondents would have been correct in saying that the petitioner was guilty of fraud or misrepresentation but there was no such fraud committed by him.The petitioner had argued that even if that certificate is excluded for determining the merit of the petitioner, still he would fall within the merit list. The court held that the Tribunal's order was hasty, lacked analysis, and ignored relevant evidence and quashed the orders passed by respondent as well as the by tribunal in striking out his name from the list and further directed the respondent to Reassess the petitioner's merit for the appointment as Physical Education Teacher excluding the invalid certificate.The court said that this exercise be concluded within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of order by the respondents.BACKGROUND:The petitioner applied for the post of Physical Education Teacher (P.E.T.) under Advertisement Notice. He had scored 41.29 points, while the last selected candidate had 28.61 points, and he was listed at Serial No. 23 in the provisional merit list.However, his selection was cancelled based on the allegation that he had submitted a fake National Sports Certificate.The petitioner challenged this cancellation, and the case eventually reached the Central Administrative Tribunal, which dismissed his application without deciding on the merits. Hence the present petition.APPEARANCE Mohammad Yawar Hussain, Advocate For PetitionerFaheem Nisar Shah, GA with Ms. Maha Majeed For RespondentsCase-Title:Mohammad Shafiq Dar vs Union Territory of J&K & OrsCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (JKL) 162Click Here To Read/Download Order

Submitting Invalid But Genuine Certificate In Recruitment Process Is Neither Fraud Nor Misrepresentation For Disqualifying Candidate: J&K High Court

Aleem Syeed

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