A candidate must possess the eligibility on the cutoff date and if claims to belong to a particular category in the application form and is unable to produce the proof/certificate before the cutoff date despite best efforts, the candidate shall be permitted to produce the proof before finalization of the selection for admission/appointment.

N. Paul Vasantha Kumar, J.

1. A Division Bench of this Court by order dated 15.03.1994 while admitting the appeal and noticing the sustainability of the order of learned Single Judge, which was impugned before the Division Bench, referred the matter before the Full Bench taking note of the judgment of Division Bench rendered earlier in LPA No. 261/1992 titled Naresh Singh v. State of Jammu and Kashmir and others dated 24.11.1993. The Division Bench while making reference has observed as follows:

"We are prima facie in agreement with the learned Single Judge that a candidate, who has acted diligently and done all that was necessary could not be denied consideration under the reserved category to which he/she admittedly belong. We accordingly feel that besides the questions formulated by the appellants in the Memo of Appeal, one of the questions that would additionally arise would be whether the writ petitioner could be disentitled for consideration under the reserved category in view of the admitted fact that the Authority competent to issue the certificate had failed in its obligation to decide the matter within fifteen days and also in view of the fact that the candidate had done all that was necessary and possible in the circumstances of the case.............".

2. Consequent to the said reference made, a Full Bench was initially constituted by the Chief Justice on 25.04.1994. The said Full Bench constituting three Judges ordered listing of the matter again after getting orders from the Chief Justice as one of the Judges constituting the Full Bench being part of the earlier Division Bench in Naresh Singh's case (the judgment of which was the cause of reference) and the matter was again placed before the Chief Justice for re-constitution of the Full Bench in which that Hon'ble Judge is not a member.

3. On 30.04.1994, the Chief Justice constituted another Full Bench. Thereafter, the matter was listed after more than six years on 10.11.2000 and the Full Bench directed listing of the matter for hearing again from 04.12.2000. The matter was not listed for hearing before the Full Bench all these years and was listed for hearing only on 04.04.2016 and the same was heard by us.

4. The case filed by the 1st respondent/writ petitioner before the Writ Court was seeking admission to MBBS/BDS Course for academic session 1993-94 for which a notification was issued on 30.08.1993 fixing the last date for submission of application form by 15.09.1993. The first respondent applied before the last date. Admit card was issued to the 1st respondent for appearing in the entrance examination and he appeared in the entrance examination on 9th and 10th of October 1993 at Jammu. The 1st respondent belongs to reserved category (OBA) (Resident of Backward Area) and he could get the certificate only on 30.09.1993 even though he applied for the certificate before the last date of submitting his application form. The application seeking OBA certificate was rejected by the Deputy Commissioner Doda on 26.08.1993. The first respondent filed an appeal before the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu on 03.09.1993 which was allowed on 20.09.1993 pursuant to which Deputy Commissioner, Doda issued the requisite certificate on 30.09.1993. The 1st respondent on 11.09.1993 made a representation to the 2nd appellant along with OBA certificate through registered post requesting for consideration of his candidature in the reserved category instead of general category which was received by the 2nd appellant before finalizing the selection. No reply having been received from the 2nd appellant and his name having not been considered in reserved category, the 1st respondent filed writ petition contending that the appellants are under legal obligation to consider his claim for admission to MBBS/BDS Course for the session 1993-94 on the basis of the certificate issued by Deputy Commissioner, Doda dated 30.09.1993 and a direction be issued to include and consider his claim for admi