JUDGMENT :

(PER HITEN S. VENEGAVKAR, J.)

1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the learned Counsel appearing for the parties, the Petition is taken up for final disposal at the stage of admission.

2. The present Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been instituted by the Petitioner seeking directions against Respondents Nos.2 and 3 to permit the Petitioner to complete the document verification process by granting an extension and/or one further opportunity before finalisation of the final merit list in the recruitment process initiated pursuant to Recruitment Notification No.4/853/25 issued by the Commissioner, Medical Education, Research and AYUSH, Maharashtra, for the post of Social Service Superintendent (Medical). In the alternate, the Petitioner seeks a direction to the Respondent authorities to decide his representation dated 1^st April, 2026 before publication of the final merit list.

3. The case of the Petitioner as pleaded in the Petition is that the Respondent authorities had initiated a recruitment process for the Group-C post of Social Service Superintendent (Medical) and the Petitioner had applied under the SEBC category through online application bearing No.230016267. The Petitioner appeared for the examination conducted on 26^th September, 2025 pursuant to the recruitment schedule published by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research. According to the Petitioner, the first provisional merit list came to be published on 26^th January, 2026 followed by a notice dated 27^th January, 2026 regarding document verification. Thereafter, the Petitioner’s name appeared in the second provisional merit list published on 12^th March, 2026 and the Petitioner was allotted the date of 25^th March 2026 for document verification. The Petitioner contends that Respondent No.2 had thereafter issued an email communication dated 17^th March, 2026 granting one last extension to candidates who could not complete document verification due to unavoidable circumstances. The Petitioner asserts that during the relevant period he was unable to access his email on account of unavoidable circumstances and health issues and, therefore, remained unaware of the notified schedule. According to him, he came to know about the document verification process only on 28^th March, 2026, whereafter he immediately approached the Respondent authorities and submitted applications and representations on 1^st April, 2026 requesting one final opportunity to complete the process. It is the grievance of the Petitioner that despite such representations, the Respondent authorities neither considered his request nor granted him an opportunity to submit documents and consequently the Petitioner has approached this Court invoking Writ Jurisdiction.

4. The learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner submitted that the Petitioner had missed the document verification process for bona fide reasons arising out of his medical condition and inability to access his email during the relevant period. It was argued that since the final merit list has not yet been published, no prejudice whatsoever would be caused either to the Respondent authorities or to any other candidate if one final opportunity is granted to the Petitioner. The learned Counsel submitted that the authorities themselves had granted extension to certain candidates from the first provisional merit list and, therefore, denial of similar treatment to the Petitioner amounts to arbitrary discrimination violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. It was further argued that the Petitioner had acted diligently immediately upon acquiring knowledge of the missed schedule by submitting representations to the authorities and, therefore, the authorities ought to have exercised discretion in favour of the Petitioner. The learned Counsel urged that oral rejection of the Petitioner’s representation without affording an opportunity of hearing amounts to violation of princi