IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: February 24, 2026 DEEPANSHU PARASHAR ...Petitioner Versus HARYANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE TRIBHUVAN DAHIYA Present: Mr. Varun Veer Chauhan, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Gurnoor Singh Sandhu, Advocate for the respondent-HPSC.

TRIBHUVAN DAHIYA, J. (ORAL)

With the consent of the parties, the date of hearing of the main case is advanced to today, and is taken on Board.

2. The petition has been filed inter alia seeking a writ of certiorari setting aside the order dated 02.09.2025, Annexure P-8, whereby the petitioner has been informed that his EWS certificate, dated 30.08.2024, Annexure P-5, was not received by the Commission along with the legal notice. And, as per clause 16(vii) of the advertisement, no document which has not been uploaded with the online application can be entertained.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the petitioner applied for the post of Assistant Professor (College Cadre) Geography, pursuant to advertisement 51/2024 as EWS category candidate. Along with the application form, he uploaded certificate dated 29.08.2024, Annexure P-4. Due to inadvertence, the valid certificate of EWS category dated

30.08.2024, Annexure P-5, could not be uploaded along with the application form, resulting in rejection of his candidature. Since the mistake was inadvertent it should have been condoned, allowing the petitioner to participate. He has placed reliance upon Vashist Narayan Kumar v. State of Bihar and others, 2024 SCC Online SC 2, in support of the contentions.

4. Learned counsel for the Commission, however, contends that as per stipulations in the advertisement, the candidates were required to submit EWS category certificate as per Government instructions dated 25.02.2019. And any document not submitted to the Commission before the closing date/15.03.2025, was not required to be considered in support of the claim. The law in this regard has been settled by the Division Bench vide judgment dated 03.11.2025, rendered in LPA-1397-2025 titled Haryana Public Service Commission v. Pardeep Kumar and others.

5. Considering the submissions, this Court is not inclined to entertain the petition as in terms of law laid down in Pardeep Kumar case ibid., the document not uploaded along with the application form cannot be considered in support of the candidature. On similar facts, this Court has already dismissed a petition vide judgment dated 05.02.2026, in CWP-3269-2026 titled Suman Kumari v. Haryana Public Service Commission, which has been affirmed in LPA-480-2026 by the Division Bench vide order dated 19.02.2026. Further, the judgment in Vashist Narayan Kumar case (supra) does not advance the petitioner’s case in any manner. The candidate there had submitted a valid certificate in support of his educational qualification, however, the date of birth was wrongly mentioned in the application form as 08.12.1997, instead of 18.12.1997. The fact regarding correct date of birth stood established from the educational certificates attached with the application form. Based upon these facts, his candidature was ordered to be considered. Such situation does not arise in the present case.

6. At this stage, learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance upon the judgment dated 09.05.2022, rendered by a coordinate Bench in CWP-21217-2021 titled Ajay Bamel v. State of Haryana and others. This was a case where the candidate’s certificate under EWS category was not accepted on the ground that it had been issued by the central Government and not applicable for claiming reservation under EWS category in the State of Haryana. The candidature was rejected without passing an order during the process of selection. In these circumstances, the Court held as under:

5. Position that emerges is that due to certain discrepancies between the certificate dated 11.08.2021 contained at Annexure P-8 stating that annual income of th