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HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT JODHPUR
MR. JUSTICE ARUN MONGA, J
Shivangi Pathak D/o Tej Prakash Pathak – Appellant
Versus
The Rajasthan Public Service Commission Through Its Chairman, Ajmer – Respondent
Judgment :
ARUN MONGA, J.
1. The petitioners, recent law graduates, are before this Court seeking the issuance of an appropriate writ or direction commanding the respondents to permit their participation in the selection process for the post of Assistant Prosecution Officer (APO), a recruitment exercise qua which is being conducted after a decade-long hiatus. Their online applications were provisionally accepted on the condition that they obtain their law degrees by the date of the preliminary examination, scheduled for 19.01. 2025. In the interim period between submitting their applications and the preliminary examination, the petitioners have successfully completed their law degrees. However, at the time of submitting their applications, they were still students awaiting their final law examinations.
2. Vide this common judgment, above detailed/numbered bunch of eight petitions are being decided together as similar facts and issues are involved therein. For the sake of brevity, facts and recitals are being taken from the earliest of the writ petition bearing number S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 20295/2024.
3. Relevant facts, shorn of unnecessary details, for the purpose of adjudicatio
Candidates who acquire qualifications before the examination are eligible to participate in recruitment processes, even if they were in final year at the time of application.
Eligibility criteria in recruitment must adhere to the original guidelines allowing final-year candidates to participate, ensuring clarity and fairness in selection processes.
The court affirmed that eligibility for public employment must be determined by the cut-off date specified in the advertisement, with no provision for relaxation.
Employment and Service matter - Recruitment Process on basis of advertisement - Qualification - It is well settled that suitability and eligibility have to be considered with reference to last date f....
The main legal point established in the judgment is that eligibility of a candidate must be judged with reference to the last date for receiving the applications, and a person who acquires the prescr....
The eligibility of any candidate is to be reckoned from the date of the selection and appointments made in contravention of the statutory provisions are void ab initio.
Candidates must adhere to application guidelines and deadlines; negligence in application cannot be excused.
Public appointments are void if they lack adherence to stipulated eligibility criteria as of the cut-off date, regardless of length of service or administrative inaction.
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