CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL CUTTACK BENCH OA No. 373 OF 2023 Reserved on :04.02.2026 Pronounced on :25.02.2026 Coram : Hon’ble Mr. Sudhi Ranjan Mishra, Member (J)

Hon’ble Mr. Pramod Kumar Das, Member (A)

1. Sri Prabeen Kumar Mahanta, aged about 21 years, S/o Sambhunath Mahanta, resident Door No. 28, Village – Barapada Uchhabali, Dist Keonjhar.

……Applicant VERSUS

1. Union of India represented through the Secretary-

Cum-Director General of Posts, Ministry of Communication, Department of Posts, Dak Bhawan, New Delhi - 110001.

2. Superintendent of Post Office, Keonjhar Division, Keonjhar, Odisha 758001.

……Respondents For the applicant : Mrs. Kalpita Garnaik, counsel For the respondents: Mr. A K Rath, counsel O R D E R Hon’ble Mr. Sudhi Ranjan Mishra, J.M.

The applicant aggrieved by order dated 09.03.2023 wherein his candidature for the post of GDS has been rejected has filed this OA praying for following reliefs:

a) To admit the OA & issue notices to the respondents;

b) To call for the relevant records and after hearing from the both sides allow the Original Application to the extent that:

c) Necessary order may be passed by the Hon’ble Court by directing the authorities to allow the applicant to participate in the selection process by declaring the decision dtd. 19.05.2023 rejecting the candidature of the applicant to be illegal, improper and unjust in the eyes of law and to direct the authorities to publish the merit list.

d) And pass such other order/orders, direction/direction as deem fit and proper to the facts and circumstances of the case to given complete relief in favour of the applicant.

2. The brief facts of the case as inter alia averred by the applicant in the OA is that the respondents had floated an advertisement on 27.01.2026 inviting online application for engagement as Gramin Dak Sevak. It is submitted that applicant on 09.02.2023 applied o3 nline and in the said application form he had declared his category as OBC but since he belongs to SEBC category as per the State of Orissa is concerned he had uploaded SEBC certificate and applied for OBC certificate on 19.05.2023. It is submitted on 13.05.2023 a notification was issued for document verification and the applicant was called to attend document verification with SP Keonjhar Division on or before 22.05.2023 along with all original documents. It is submitted that he had appeared before the respondents and produced both SEBC and OBC certificate before the authorities as per his declaration in his online application that he belongs to OBC category. It is submitted that on the same date 19.05.2023 he had been intimated that his candidature was rejected on the ground that the data entered by him does not tally with the data of documents produced against the data for community certificate. It is submitted that at the time of online application there was no instruction to upload any documents but only to declare the details of candidature and he had declared his category to be OBC and he had also produced the caste certificate issued on 19.05.2023 accor4d ing to which he belongs to Kudumi community which is backward class recognized by Govt. of India. Hence the OA.

3. The respondents have filed counter inter alia averring that applicant had applied for the post on 09.02.2023 through online wherein he had furnished the data in respect of category as OBC but on document verification it was noticed that the OBC certificate was issued on 19.05.2023 i.e. date of verification of the documents. It is submitted that applicant did not submit the certificate of OBC issued on or before 09.02.2023 i.e. date of application. Hence his candidature was rejected and they prayed for dismissal of the OA.

4. The applicant has filed rejoinder reiterating the stand taken by him in the OA and relied upon decision of Pushpa vrs Government NCT of Delhi and others (2009) (2) Laws Delhi 278.

5. Heard both sides and perused the records.

6. It is admitted fact that the OBC certificate produced by the applic