IMPORTANT POINT
The court upheld the rejection of the applicant's candidature based on expert opinion regarding handwriting mismatch, affirming that natural justice does not guarantee specific procedures if fairness is maintained.

JUDGMENT :

C. HARI SHANKAR, J.

1. This writ petition assails an order dated 24 April 2017 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench [“the Tribunal” hereinafter] in OA 2064/2015. We deem it appropriate to reproduce the order in its entirety:

“Since the question of law and facts involved in both the aforesaid cases are identical, they are being disposed of by this common order. For the sake of convenience, we have considered the facts from OA No. 416/2015.

2. The applicant, in pursuance of the Employment Notification No. 220E/open mkt/rectt./2012, dated 30.08.2012, had applied for a Group ‘D’ post in Northern Railway, in ST Category. He was allotted Roll No. 40312356 and Control Number as 4072582. He participated in the written examination, which was held on 08.12.2013 and thereafter he was also called for Physical Efficiency Test (in short, PET) and after qualifying the same, he was called for documents verification on 04.06.2014 and thereafter he was also sent for medical examination, in which the applicant qualified and declared fit. It is stated that although appointment letters were issued to other selected candidates, but in respect of him, the respondents mentioned status “Documents required from candidate or case recommended by the committee/Admin. to the Technical Experts for further examination” on the web-site in November, 2014. On 12.12.2014 (Annexure A/1), the respondents mentioned on the web-site that the case of the I applicant was rejected by the experts. On his personal inquiry about his case, the staff of the Respondent No. 3 informed the applicant that he has put his signature differently in the respective documents. Hence, the present OA has been filed mainly on the ground that the candidature of the applicant has been rejected without issuing any show cause notice and without giving him any reasonable opportunity, and without supplying a copy of the expert report, which is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and against the principles of natural justice.

3. Per contra, the respondents, in their reply, have stated that during document verification, a Committee of three Railway officers, constituted for the purpose, observed that writings on the relevant papers did not match and accordingly the applicant’s case was sent for detailed examination by a forensic expert nominated by Ministry of Railway, and on receipt of the expert’s report confirming the mismatch of his hand-writing/signatures, the applicant’s case was rejected by the competent authority in consonance with the notified terms and conditions in the aforesaid Employment News and status was accordingly uploaded on RRC website. It is further stated that calling for document verification does not automatically confer any right upon candidate for his Medical Examination or his appointment on any post of Northern Railway.

4. The learned counsel for the respondents, while not denying the aforesaid facts about calling of the applicant for medical examination, etc. would submit that the present OA is squarely covered by the decisions of this Tribunal in OA No. 2915/2015, decided on 05.09.2016 and OA No. 2109/2015, decided on 09.09.2016, and also by the decision of the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana in CWP No. 12264/2016, decided on 08.11.2016. Hence, he submits that the OA is liable to be dismissed.

5. Heard the learned counsel for both sides and perused the pleadings on record.

6. After hearing the matter at length on 28.11.2016, since the reply of the respondents did not give the complete details of rejection of the candidature of the applicant, we directed the respondents to produce the relevant records. In compliance thereto, on 08.03.2017, the learned counsel for the respondents furnished a Xerox copy of the Application Form, OMR Answer Sheet, Document Verification cum Medical Examination Report and Expert Report of Forensic Documents Consultant & Ex. Govt. Examiner of Questioned Documents, MHA, Govt. of India, Shimla dated 12.12.201