Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench: New Delhi O.A. No.1870/2019 M.A. No.1300/2022 This the 27^th day of November, 2025 Hon’ble Mr. Manish Garg, Member (J)

Hon’ble Mr. Rajinder Kashyap, Member (A)

Sushil, Age-28+ years, Group -C S/o Rajpal, R/o-VPO-Assan, Disrict & Tehsil-Rohtak, Applicant Haryana-124001 …Applicant (By Advocate : Mr. Sachin Chauhan)

Versus

1. Staff Selection Commission, Through the Chairman, S.S.C, Block No-12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi -3

2. The Regional Director (NR), Govt. of India, Department of Personnel and Training, Staff Selection Commission, Block No.12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-3 3. Union of India through the Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India, North Block, New Delhi-1

4 . Chairman, Central Board of Excise & Customs, North Block, New Delhi-110001 …Respondents (By Advocates: Ms. Gyanendra Singh)

ORDER (ORAL)

By Hon’ble Mr. Manish Garg, Member (J)

In the present Original Application filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, the applicant seeks the following reliefs:

“(i) To quash and set aside the order dated 22.05.2018 (received in the first week of June 2018) and Show Cause Notice dated 27.05.2013 whereby the applicant is put under notice as to why the candidature of the applicant should not be cancelled; further, to grant the benefit of the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of SSC vs. Sudesh in SLP Nos. 2836–2838 of 2017 dated 19.07.2017, affirmed in R.P. (C) Nos. 2417–2419/2017 dated 31.10.2017, and the applicant be given appointment as per merit obtained by the applicant in the present selection process conducted under Combined Graduate Level SSC Examination (CGL), 2012 Level, with all consequential benefits including seniority, promotion, and pay & allowances.

Or/and (ii) Any other relief which this Hon'ble Tribunal deems fit and proper may also be awarded to the applicant.”

2. Brief facts of the case as narrated by learned counsel for the applicant are as under:

2.1 The applicant appeared as a candidate in the Combined Graduate Level Examination 2012, notified in the Employment News dated 24.03.2012. It is submitted that the CGL Examination was divided into three phases, namely Tier-I (Written Examination – Objective Type), Tier-II consisting of two papers i.e., Paper-I (Quantitative Abilities) and Paper-II (English & Comprehension), and Interview for language-selected candidates for Interview posts only.

2.2 It is pertinent to mention that the present selection process has been conducted by one of the premier bodies of the Government of India, specialized for conducting selection processes at the All-India level through tried and tested methods, namely the Staff Selection Commission. The process and method evolved and implemented by the Staff Selection Commission ensures that no malpractices of any form can be adopted by any candidate during the selection process. It is submitted that the prime objective of every selection process is to pick up meritorious candidates by virtue of a fair selection mechanism, and the SSC ensures that the process remains fair and does not give any opportunity to any candidate to practice any malpractice during the examination.

2.3 The applicant appeared in Tier-I of CGL-2012 with Roll No. 2201553777 and duly qualified the same on merit. It is submitted that only those candidates who qualify the Tier-I Exam on merit are eligible to participate in Tier-II, and therefore the fact that the applicant cleared the Tier-I Exam establishes the basic eligibility and merit of the applicant in the present selection process.

2.4 Thereafter, the applicant appeared in the Tier-II Examination, which comprised two papers, namely Paper-I (Quantitative Abilities) and Paper-II (English Language & Comprehension). The applicant qualified Tier-II as well on merit. It is further submitted that the applicant never adopted any illegal means while appearing in any examination and never resorted to copying