IMPORTANT POINT
Appointment – If a particular procedure in filling up application form is prescribed, application form should be filled up following that procedure alone.

JUDGMENT

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

1. The challenge in the present appeal is to an order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Allahabad whereby appeal filed by the appellants was dismissed. Such appeal was directed against an order passed by the learned Single Bench of the High Court, wherein, an order dated 27.1.2017 passed by the appellants was quashed and thus, consequently, the candidature of the respondent [For short, the ‘writ petitioner’] was to be considered and accepted by the appellants.

2. The Employment Notice No. 1/2011 was published to fill up 11952 posts of Constables in the Railway Protection Force [For short, the ‘RPF’]. The process of selection comprised of written examination consisting of 120 multiple choice objection type questions of one mark each and of 90 minutes duration. The candidates had to obtain at least 35% marks (30% in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates) in the written examination for being considered for other Test such as Physical Efficiency Test [For short, the ‘PET’]. Para 8 Clause B of the Advertisement gives the requirement of an application form and also that the said application should be filled up by the candidates in their own handwriting, in Hindi or English only. The applications were required to be accompanied by a self-attested matriculation certificate as proof of educational qualification and age. The relevant conditions read as under:

“8. xxx xxx

B. Application form' a) The format of the application form is given in Annexure 'A'. Application forms can be downloaded from the official website of Indian Railways (www.indlanrailways.gov.in) or taken from the Employment News or from this advertisement and submitted on A-4 size bond paper, using one side only and sent to the Nodal Chief Security Commissioner corresponding to the language chosen for the Question Paper. Only one application need be sent. The addresses of the Nodal Chief Security Commissioners, the details of the person in whose favour the Draft/IPO shall be drawn and the place where payable are given below. The languages for the question paper are also shown against each Nodal Chief Security Commissioner for the convenience of the applicants.

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(e) Applications should be filled by the candidates in their own handwriting, in Hindi or English only. Left Hand thumb impression in the case of Male applicants and Right-Hand thumb impression in case of Female applicants shall be affixed in the box given at the bottom of the application. Applications signed in capital letters/spaced-out letters will be treated as invalid. Applications with correction or overwriting or smudged thumb impression may be rejected.

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9 (e) Impersonation, if any, detected at any stage of the recruitment, may result in initiating criminal cases against the applicant and the impersonator as well as canceling the candidature of the applicant.”

3. The writ petitioner belongs to Other Backward Class category and has filled up his application form along with Indian Postal Order dated 5.3.2011 in English. His signatures are in English consisting of two letters “M” and “S”. Such application form is accompanied with a self-attested marksheet of high school examination and other certificates. All such documents are self-attested and signed in Hindi.

4. The writ petitioner appeared for the written test on 23.6.2013 where he wrote the paragraph in Hindi on the OMR sheet,