IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
N.V. ANJARIA, NIRAL R. MEHTA, JJ.
STATE OF GUJARAT – Appellant
Versus
MAMTA MANSUKHBHAI CHOTHANI – Respondent
Letters Patent Appeal No. 901 of 2022, Special Civil Application No. 6036 of 2021, Civil Application (For Stay) No. 1 of 2022
Decided On : 01-02-2023
Not issuing formal appointment order - Suppression - Appeal is directed against order passed by holding action of appellants in not issuing formal appointment order as illegal and consequently, directed them to appoint petitioner as Assistant Teacher in subject of Economics in Gujarati medium with all other ancillary and consequential directions – Held, There was no question of obtaining any wrongful gain by petitioner by mentioning details - It was bonafide mistake of such nature, thereby, candidate who committed mistake did not reap any benefit nor could have obtained any benefit nor any other candidate would stand prejudiced if mistake is allowed to be ignored - Mistake appears to have been bonafide in nature and in view of such mistake, candidate appears to have not gained anything - In other words, by alleged suppression, petitioner is not going to gain any undue advantage and by mentioning correct facts would not disentitle her for something - Reasoning given by learned Single Judge appears to be absolutely reasonable and thereby, court do not find any substance to entertain appeal – Appeal dismissed.
ORDER :
1. This Letters Patent Appeal, under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent, at the instance of the appellants herein-original respondents is directed against the order dated 29th November 2021 passed in Special Civil Application No. 6036 of 2021, by which the learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition of the original petitioner by holding, inter alia, action of the appellants herein in not issuing formal appointment order as illegal and consequently, directed them to appoint the original petitioner as Assistant Teacher in the subject of Economics in Gujarati medium with all other ancillary and consequential directions.
2. The short facts arising from the record can be stated as under:
2.2 In the said advertisement, it was stipulated that mistake, if any, is committed in filling up the online application form, in the event, the application would not be considered. Thus, time was also given to candidates to edit their applications till the last date of filling up the application form i.e. 24th January 2021.
2.3 The respondent herein-original petitioner, while submitting online application form, had selected the option of “No” instead of option “Yes” against the question as to whether the candidate is working in any teaching position in any government school.
2.4 On the other hand, since it was required by the candidate to attach 'No Objection Certificate' from the District Primary Education Officer in case the candidate is working in teaching position in government school, therefore, the respondent herein-original petitioner applied for the same and vide certificate dated 22nd January 2021, the District Primary Education Officer, Devbhoomi Dwarka District Panchayat issued certificate to that extent.
2.5 Indisputably, the original petitioner had requested and obtained certificate prior to the date of filling up the online application form. The candidature of the original petitioner came to be considered and placed at Serial No. 48 and the list of documents verification was prepared by the appellants herein. Total 1132 candidates were called for documents verification and whereas at that stage, the original petitioner has submitted an undertaking in the form of an affidavit dated 5th March 2021 where also the original petitioner had submitted that she was working in the above named school since 27th March 2017.
2.6 The respondent herein-original petitioner attended the documents verification process, however, in provisional merit list dated 19th March 2021, name of the original petitioner did not figure, but, another list being list of disqualified candidates published on the same date in which name of the original petitioner was figured at Serial No. 5. It was mentioned in the said list that since the petitioner did not mention in her online application that she was working as a Teacher in government school whereas the petitioner had mentioned the same in her affidavit, therefore, her application has been rejected.
3. Thus, being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the aforesaid, the respondent herein-original petitioner approached this Court by way of a petition being Special Civil Application No. 6036 of 2021 with the following reliefs:
Deliberate inflation of academic marks in application forms constitutes material misrepresentation, invalidating employment contracts under established legal principles of public trust and recruitmen....
Candidates who fill incorrect marks that disadvantage them should not have their candidature cancelled, while those who gain an advantage through errors may face disqualification.
on a reading of the Government Order and Circulars applicable it is quite clear that wherever a candidate had put himself in a disadvantageous position as stated above his candidature shall not be ca....
Appellant has failed to make out a case for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to rectify the mistake made by her in her online submission
The candidature of a candidate is liable to be cancelled only if the candidate puts himself/herself in an advantaged position by committing a mistake while submitting the online application form.
Trivial mistakes in application forms should not disqualify candidates from selection processes, especially when original documents verify their claims.
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