The Respondent, being an Article 12 Entity, must act in a just & reasonable way. The rejection of the Appellant's application without giving him an opportunity to rectify the illegible document is unfair and violates the principles of natural justice.

JUDGMENT :

This intra-Court Appeal calls in question a learned Single Judge’s order dated 14.02.2023, whereby Appellant’s W.P.No.2753/2023 essentially challenging his non-selection for appointment to the post in question has been negatived on the ground that, “the information uploaded by the Petitioner is incomplete and illegible, and therefore, there is no infirmity in the Endorsement issued by the Respondent – Federation…”

2. Learned counsel for the Appellant vehemently argues that the impugned Endorsement of the Respondent – Cooperative Federation, which is an Entity answering the description of State under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, is contrary to the norms of recruitment; the same is absolutely bereft of elements of justice; the Federation ought to have given an opportunity to rectify the error by calling upon the Appellant to upload a legible copy of his Social Status Certificate and not doing the same is unfair & unreasonable. He further argues that these aspects having not been duly considered by the learned Single Judge, the impugned order is liable to be voided and Writ Petition needs to be favoured, by allowing the Appeal.

3. Learned Senior Advocate, Sri S.S.Naganand representing the Respondent – Co-operative Federation vociferously opposes the Appeal making submission in justification of the order of the learned Single Judge and the reasons on which the same is structured. The thrust of his contention is: the very terms of Recruitment Notification dated 20.10.2022 more particularly Condition stipulated at (xi) therein provides for rejection of the Online Applications inter alia on the ground of unclear/vague document; thousands of candidates staking their claim, no individual opportunity is feasible to be given to the non-compliant candidates. He presses into service certain Rulings.

4. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties and having perused the Appeal papers, we are inclined to grant indulgence in the matter for the following reasons:

a. The Respondent – Co-operative Federation answers the description of State under Article 12 of the Constitution in the light of the decision of Apex Court in R.D.SHETTY vs. INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF INDIA, AIR 1979 SC 1628 and therefore, it has to conduct all its affairs in a just & reasonable way. Any act of Article 12 Entity that is not animated with the elements of fairness runs the risk of invalidation at the hands of Writ Court, ours being a Welfare State as constitutionally Ordained. The action of the Federation in shunting the Appellant to the General Category merely because the Certificate of Social Status which he had uploaded was not clearly visible or that it was illegible, is absolutely unfair, to say the least. A simple intimation to the candidate of the so called defect, would have been made the impugned action compliant with the principles of natural justice. No explanation is offered for not undertaking such an innocuous exercise. This falls militantly short of the fairness standards, as rightly argued by learned counsel for the Appellant.

b. It is not the case of Respondent – Co-operative Federation that the subject Certificate of Social Status is spurious or otherwise inadmissible. What is contended is that the same was not legible when web-hosted. But, what we fail to understand is, what heavens would have fallen down had the Federation asked the Appellant to web-host a legible Certificate. Learned Sr. Advocate appearing for the Respondent – Cooperative Federation contended that the instructions contained in the subject Recruitment Notification not only do not provide for such a course of action but, prescribe automatic rejection of the very Application of the candidate concerned. He invokes General Instruction No.(xi) which has the following text in the colloquial language:

This Instruction in our opinion, cannot be construed to exclude the principles of natural justice which are at times treated as part of Article 14 of the Co