Non-compliance with eligibility criteria for caste certification results in exclusion from selection for public employment, reinforcing the necessity of fulfilling advertisement conditions.

ORDER :

MUNNURI LAXMAN, J.

1. At the request of and with the consent of the learned counsels for both the parties, the matter has been heard for final disposal at the admission stage itself.

2. The present writ petition has been filed challenging the action of the respondents in not considering the petitioner for final selection to the post of Medical Officer.

3. The facts of the case disclose that the petitioner had applied for the post of Medical Officer pursuant to the advertisement dated 20.05.2024. At the time of submission of application form, the petitioner has submitted a certificate dated 08.03.2016 in respect of OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) issued by the competent authority, i.e. the Sub Divisional Officer, Rawatbhata. Admittedly, the petitioner has not produced the requisite certificate for the State Services. Subsequently, the petitioner has produced an affidavit undertaking to produce OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) certificate at the time of verification of the documents. The certificate was required to be issued by the State Authorities for claiming reservations under OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) category before issuance of final selection list. Despite of submission of such a certificate and affidavit in accordance with the requirements, her name was not found in the final selection list for the post of Medical Officer. Therefore, she has filed the present writ petition.

4. The case of the respondents is that the requisite certificate and the affidavit submitted by the petitioner were not in consonance with the requirements/conditions of the Circulars. According to the respondents, as per the advertisement itself, all the eligibility criteria are required to be fulfilled at the time of submission of application form. By virtue of the Circulars, the relaxation of submitting the requisite certificate along with affidavit is required to be submitted by fulfilling the conditions of the Circulars. When they found that the petitioner has submitted the requisite certificate and affidavit without fulfilling the conditions of the Circulars, her name was not included in the final select list. Further the case of the respondents is that the affidavit produced by the petitioner was not found to be in terms of the requirements of the Circulars, as such, her case was not considered for inclusion in the final select/merit list.

5. Heard both the sides.

6. It is not in dispute that the petitioner has not produced the requisite certificate of OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) issued by the State Government at the time of submission of application form. However, she submitted the certificate of OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) issued by the competent authority for the Central Government services.

7. It is also not in dispute that there are two Circulars (dated 02.01.2022 and 17.10.2022) issued by the State Government in this regard. The Circulars do not specifically mentioned the stage at which, the subsequent certificate can be produced and the Circulars also requires that when a certificate is produced subsequent to the date of the submission of application form, an affidavit is required to be filed. The affidavit must contain the facts to the effect that for claiming the reservation under the eligibility criteria for OBC (Non-Creamy Layer), the requisite status contain in the certificate submitted by the candidate was the same status on the date of submission/filing of the application form. The second condition is that there must be an undertaking in the affidavit to be given by the candidate to the effect that if the requirements as mentioned in the affidavit were found to be incorrect, his/her