IMPORTANT POINT
The court emphasized adherence to natural justice in administrative decisions, ruling that cancellation of candidature without proper notice is impermissible.

JUDGMENT :

(C. Hari Shankar, J.)

1. The Northern Railway issued a recruitment notice, for filling up of 5679 Group D posts in the pay-scale of Rs. 5200-20200 with Grade Pay of Rs. 1800 on 30 December 2013. The petitioner applied against the said notice. He participated in the written examination which was held on 30 November 2014 and was declared successful for appearing in the next stage of selection, which was the Physical Endurance Test,[“PET” hereinafter], in the result declared in 2015. He cleared the PET and was called for verification of documents on 24 June 2015.

2. At the stage of verification of documents, the petitioner’s candidature was cancelled. The reason, as displayed on the website of the Northern Railway, read thus:

“In terms of Employment Notification No.220E/Open Mkt/RRC/2013 dated 30/12/2013, published in Employment News dated 11-17 January 2014, a recruitment process to fill up 5679 vacancies in Pay Band-I Rs.5200-20200 + GP Rs.1800/- Group "D' Post was initiated. In Para 5 thereof detailed information on how to apply, general conditions and invalid applications with, clear stipulation that admission of all the candidates at all stages of recruitment would be purely provisional subject to satisfying the prescribed conditions was prescribed. It was also stipulated in the notification/instructions that candidate should fill up the application form including the paragraph indicated in the application form in his/her own hand-writing.

Railway Recruitment Cell got your case examined from Ex. Government Examiner for Questionable Documents [GEQD] nominated by Ministry of Railway, Govt. of India, for matching of Hand-writing/Signature on the application form vis a vis the OMR Sheet, Document verification Proforma etc. The Document Expert has since tendered his opinion/advice to the effect that the writing/Signature on the application, OMR Sheet. Document verification proforma under examination do not match. Accordingly you have violated the examination condition regarding the candidates to fill up the application form including the paragraph indicated in the application form in his/her own hand-writing or it is a case of impersonation. Hence after taking into account all facts of your case it has been decided to reject your candidature for the above examination. You are further informed that any further action, if any, to be taken against you by Rly, Administration for above noted misconduct/violation of Examination conditions, will be taken up separately.

Take note that the issue regarding cancellation/rejection of candidature of candidates resorting to violation of examination conditions and misconduct of impersonation was a matter before the Hon’ble Courts/Tribunals and same has been settled wide orders dated 9.7.2014 in the case of Deepak Vs UOI OA No.1355/HR/2013 of Chandigarh Bench and orders dated 01.05.12 in OA No.1181/2012 Sonu v UOI and order dated 27.07.15 in OA No.2356 of 2014 Devendra Kumar Vs UOI by Principal Bench/CAT/Delhi & Apex Court Judgment in SLP(C) No.706/2014 i.e. UOI & Anr. Vs Sarwan Ram & Anr.

You stands informed accordingly through RRC/NR website, which is the prime source of dissemination of information to the candidates.”

3. The petitioner represented against the decision to cancel the candidature on 28 January 2016 and 7 April 2016. He submitted that, while he normally used to sign in English, the application form required him to enter his signatures in English and Hindi. In his Hindi signature, he entered his name as ^^fnus'k dqekj^^-

4. According to the petitioner, almost a year elapsed between the submission of the application and the conducting of the examination. In the OMR,[“Optical Mark Recognition”] sheet, which was to be filled up at the time of undertaking the written examination, the candidates were required to sign both in English and Hindi. The petitioner submitted that he did not remember that in his application, he had signed in Hindi only as ^^fnus'k dqekj^^- and that it was f