Inadvertent clerical errors in application forms that do not affect a candidate's eligibility or provide undue advantage should not lead to the cancellation of candidature, as substantive rights should not be defeated by hyper-technical procedural approaches.

Per: SURESH KUMAR BATRA, MEMBER (J):

1. The applicant has filed instant O.A under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking following relief:

(I) “Setting aside the notice dated 03.08.2022 (Annexure A-7) sent by email to the Applicant and the rejection letter dated 10.08.2022 (Annexure A-9) received by the applicant on 17.08.2022 whereby the candidature of the Applicant has been cancelled on the ground of data not tallied with the entered data (inadvertently mentioned wrong date of passing the Matriculation, in the application form) and the respondents be directed to appoint the Applicant against the post of Gramin Dak Sevaks BPM against SC category against the advertisement dated Nil (Annexure A-1) in the interest of justice.”

2. The brief facts of the case as pleaded are that the respondents invited applications for recruitment of 38,926 posts of Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) as BPM/ABPM/Dak Sevaks vide advertisement dated Nil. The prescribed essential qualification is Secondary School Examination (10th Standard) with Mathematics and English. The applicant, being fully eligible, applied for the said post. However, while filling the online application form, the applicant inadvertently mentioned the year of passing of 10th standard as 2005–06 instead of the correct year 2021, though the correct particulars were reflected in the GDS Engagement Registration Form with original matriculation certificate. The applicant was shortlisted on the basis of system-generated merit and was called for document verification, which he attended on 02.08.2022 (Annexure A-5 and A-6).

3. Subsequently, vide notice dated 03.08.2022 (Annexure A-7), the candidature of the applicant was cancelled on the ground that the data entered in the application did not tally with the documents produced. The applicant submitted a representation dated 08.08.2022, explaining that the discrepancy was purely inadvertent and apparent on the face of the record, especially considering his date of birth being 01.02.2004, making it impossible for him to have passed matriculation in 2005–06. The said representation was rejected vide order dated 10.08.2022 without affording any opportunity of hearing. The applicant has relied upon the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Civil Appeal No. 1 of 2024 arising out of SLP (C) No. 12230 of 2023 titled as Vashist Narayan Kumar Vs. the State of Bihar & Ors dated 02.01.2024.

4. The respondents have filed reply contesting the claim of the applicant and submitted that after completing the process, on the basis of the system-generated merit list as per data uploaded by the candidates, the name of the applicant having registration No. SR8D53F778A939 was shortlisted for the post of GDS BPM Bidhwan B.O. under Bhiwani Division. The applicant attended the office of Superintendent of Post Offices, Bhiwani on 02.08 2022 for document verification. As per procedure, the print of the application form of the applicant (Annexure R-1) was taken from the online portal, and the information furnished by the applicant was compared with the documents produced by the candidate. Since as per the 10th class certificate (Annexure A-3) of the applicant, he has passed class 10th class in the year 2021, but while filling online application form on the GDS online portal, the applicant had selected wrong option as "BSEH Bhiwani-3", which was for the candidates passed in year 2005-06