Constable recruitment: Punjab and Haryana HC slams HSSC for rejecting Backward Class candidates over date on caste certificates

The tribunal ruled, “To debar the filing of further petitions, it is hereby made wide that payment of this judgement would beryllium disposable to each the candidates who person been transposed from BC to wide category.” The ruling is apt to payment implicit 70,000 candidates.

The lawsuit was filed by aggregate petitioners whose candidature for the reserved BC class was rejected due to the fact that they submitted caste certificates issued earlier April 1, 2023. The petitioners, represented by Senior Advocate D S Patwalia and Advocate A S Chadha, argued that the recruitment advertisement had not prescribed immoderate circumstantial cut-off day for certificate submission. They contended that their caste presumption was imperishable and did not alteration annually, dissimilar fiscal status, which determines eligibility nether the creamy furniture criteria.

The petitioners had applied for 5,000 posts of antheral constable and 1,000 posts of pistillate constable (General Duty) advertised by HSSC done advertisement No. 1/2024 dated February 12, 2024. The recruitment was aboriginal re-advertised done a nationalist announcement issued connected June 28, 2024. The candidates had already cleared the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for Group-C posts, which was a prerequisite for applying.

The petitioners highlighted that they had initially submitted valid caste certificates linked to the PPP strategy portion filing their applications. However, aft the enactment process began, HSSC arbitrarily introduced a request that lone certificates issued aft April 1, 2023, would beryllium considered valid. Many candidates, unaware of this change, were subsequently disqualified. The petitioners argued that since the PPP strategy already maintained verified caste and income details, HSSC was obligated to trust connected this authoritative database alternatively of imposing caller requirements.

On behalf of the state, Senior Deputy Advocate General Shruti Jain Goyal defended the HSSC’s determination by citing the Supreme Court’s judgement successful Divya v Union of India (2024), which held that caste certificates are taxable to changes successful fiscal presumption and should beryllium periodically updated. The authorities contended that failing to supply caller certificates meant the applicants could not beryllium considered nether the BC category.

Justice Bansal, however, rejected this argument, stating that HSSC’s ain advertisement allowed candidates to trust connected PPP information successful lawsuit caller certificates were unavailable. He noted that the committee had entree to the PPP database, which contained real-time verified data, and that disqualifying candidates implicit a retrospective certificate request was unjustified. The tribunal ruled that HSSC could not alteration the rules midway done the enactment process.