The main legal point established in the judgment is the obligation of the respondents to comply with principles of natural justice, provide equal opportunities to candidates, and consider peculiar facts and circumstances in recruitment disputes.

JUDGMENT

Sanjeev Sachdeva, J. (Oral)--Petitioner seeks quashing of the result dated 15.07.2022 to the extent that he has been declared failed in document verification examination by the respondent no.2 and also seeks setting aside of the cancellation of his candidature for recruitment in the Indian Coast Guard 02/2022 batch as Navik (GD).

2. Petitioner applied to the post for being selected as Navik (General Duty) pursuant to an advertisement (undated) issued by the respondents with regard to recruitment inter alia as Navik (General Duty) wherein the applications were to be accepted commencing from 4th January, 2022 to 14th January, 2022.

3. The advertisement in paragraph 7 inter alia stipulated that applications would be accepted `Online only'. Paragraph 7 also prescribed the documents that had to be uploaded along with the application.

4. The documents stipulated in the application were segregated into five categories i.e. (i) compulsory documents to be uploaded by all candidates during online application; (ii) additional documents to be uploaded by Navik (GD) candidates only during online application; (iii) additional documents to be uploaded by Yantrik (mechanical, Electrical and Electronics) candidates only during online application; (iv) documents to be uploaded if shortlisted for Stage II which was further sub-categorized into documents to be uploaded by (aa) all candidates; (ab) Navik (GD) candidates; and, (ac) Yantrik candidates; and, (v) documents to be uploaded by the candidates if shortlisted for Stage II.

5. The advertisement further stipulated the selection procedure which inter alia provided that selection of recruits would be based on All India order of merit on their performance in Stage I, II, III and IV and the number of vacancies available for the post. It also stipulated that clearing all Stages I, II, III, IV and satisfactory performance in training was compulsory for recruitment in the Indian Coast Guard.

6. The Stages stipulated in the advertisement were provided as Stage I - Written Examination, Stage II involved physical fitness test, document verification and initial medicals examination, Stage III stipulated document verification, final medicals at INS Chilka, submission of original document, police verification and other associated forms and State IV involved training at INS Chilka.

7. Candidates clearing Stage I would progress to Stage II and so on depending on the number of vacancies available and ratio decided by the Indian Coast Guard.

8. Petitioner cleared Stage I, i.e., written examination and progressed on to Stage II. In Stage II, he also cleared the physical fitness test. However, at the stage of document verification he was disqualified and his candidature was rejected. The reason given for his disqualification is as under:

"NOT SHORTLISTED FOR STAGE-III FAILED IN STAGE-II DOCUMENT VERIFICATION

As you are not a bonafide candidate because your application was with false information and did not match with information as per documents uploaded in application and was in contravention of Uploaded 10th Mark sheet in place of Photo ID Proof. Fail in document verification as per `para 6(b)(ii) of the advertisement' and `para 14 note (xxi)(xxix) & (xxv) of Appendix-A of E-admit card. "

9. Petitioner was disqualified and was not shortlisted for Stage III on the ground that he had uploaded a 10th Mark Sheet in place of Photo ID proof.

10. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the respondents failed to comply with principles of natural justice and also failed to give an opportunity to the petitioner to rectify the defect in the online application form. She submits that petitioner did not have wherewithal to fill up the application form online on his own and as such approached a Cyber Cafe for the purposes of uploading the form.

11. She submits that on account of an error he uploaded his 10th class Mark Sheet in place of the Aadhar Card as was required in the advertisement.

12. She