Candidate Can't Rely On Undisclosed Qualification Long Time After Recruitment Is Closed Even If Vacancies Remain: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has set aside a single bench order directing the State to consider the candidature of the respondent based on his graduation mark-sheet which was never disclosed in his original application form, but only in a writ petition filed belatedly.

The division bench of Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Bipin Gupta opined that no candidate could be allowed to seek consideration of his candidature based on documents submitted after a lapse of long period from the closure of recruitment process merely on the ground that seats were still lying vacant.

The Court was hearing an appeal filed by the State against the aforementioned decision of the single judge bench. The respondent was an aspirant for the post of teacher and had secured more than the cut-off marks in REET. However, he was denied appointment based on his result in the Senior Secondary Examination since it did not fulfill the eligibility criteria.

A writ petition was filed by him challenging this result which was withdrawn followed by another petition after a lapse of two and half year wherein he submitted that inadvertently he failed to rely on his graduation mark-sheet for clearing the qualification, and instead used his senior secondary result.

Hence, for the recruitment, his eligibility shall be checked based on the criteria of graduation instead of that of results in senior secondary examination. This petition was allowed by the single judge, against which appeal was filed by the State.

It was the case of the State that the fact of having a graduation degree was not mentioned by the petitioner while filling the application form for the recruitment in 2018. Rather, the application form was based on his senior secondary mark-sheet results.

Accordingly, after a lapse of two and half years, he could not seek eligibility based on graduation mark sheet which was not disclosed at the relevant time.

After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that there was not a single reference of existence of any alternate eligibility qualification in the respondent's application, and after two and half years, a candidate could not be permitted to claim that what he filled in this application form was an inadvertent mistake.

“This Court finds that such permission cannot be granted to an individual candidate…Granting such relief by the learned Single Judge, by treating it an inadvertent error on the part of the respondent, would set wrong precedent in matters of recruitment.”

“It is a settled principle of law that a recruitment agency is bound to consider the candidature of a candidate strictly based on the information submitted by him at the time of filling the application form or, at most, during any correction window if available, or if the correction is of a very trivial nature, until the last date for submission of the form or if factually he is prompt to seek correction.”

In this background, it was held that in no circumstances could the candidate be allowed to seek consideration of his candidature based on documents submitted after a lapse of long period from closure of recruitment process merely because seats were vacant.

Accordingly, the appeal was allowed, and the order passed by the single judge was set aside.

Title: State of Rajasthan & Ors. v Naresh Chandra Patel

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 368

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