हाई कोर्ट ने हरियाणा सार्वजनिक सेवा आयोग के निर्णय को असंवैधानिक कहा

Haryana Public Service Commission acted ‘in an unconstitutional fashion’: High Court

'The State has also fallen in grave error by inserting the arbitrary condition regarding validity of NET certification'

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) acted unconstitutionally by depriving reserved-category candidates from States other than Haryana of consideration for Assistant Professor (college cadre) posts after introducing an additional NET eligibility condition once the selection process had commenced.

The court held that the Commission could not require candidates competing against general/unreserved posts to demonstrate that they had qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET) by clearing the cut-off prescribed for the general/unreserved category, when neither the advertisement nor the applicable service rules prescribed any such condition.

“Not only has the respondent-HPSC acted in an unconstitutional fashion by depriving other State reserved category candidates from being considered against the advertisement, it has also fallen in grave error by inserting the arbitrary condition regarding validity of NET certification and making it applicable retrospectively as the selection process had already commenced,” Justice Harpreet Singh Brar asserted.

The ruling came on a bunch of 79 petitions concerning reserved-category candidates from other States, who were competing in the open pool under Clause 11(vii) of the advertisement. The question before the Bench was: “Whether candidates belonging to reserved categories from States other than Haryana can be denied consideration under the general/unreserved category on the ground that they obtained their NET certification on relaxed norms?”

Referring to the advertisement, Justice Brar observed its perusal made it evident that candidates from other States could apply to the advertised posts. However, they would not be granted any benefits regarding the reserved category they fell under. The benefit of such reservation was only sought to be provided to candidates hailing from Haryana. “The State is well within its competence to include such stipulation,” the Bench noted.

The issue arose after the HPSC issued an announcement dated June 26. The court found that the announcement effectively required reserved-category candidates from other States to show that they had qualified NET by clearing the general/unreserved cut-off.

Justice Brar added neither the clause in the advertisement dealing with eligibility criteria, nor the Haryana Education (College Cadre) Group B Service Rules, laid down any such condition. “In the absence of any such stipulation in the governing Service Rules, it is difficult to discern the basis on which the respondent-HPSC has sought to introduce an additional condition which has a direct and substantial bearing upon the eligibility of a candidate for appointment,” Justice Brar asserted.

The court added HPSC was entitled to conduct the selection process efficiently and in line with the State policy. But any additions to the prescribed eligibility criteria must not be arbitrary or contrary to the applicable rules and the scheme of process, and was required to be prescribed ahead of the selection process commencement

The court also considered the status of NET under the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018. It noted that the regulations prescribed NET as a minimum qualification for recruitment as Assistant Professor and did not contain stipulation permitting a NET certification to be disregarded on the basis of the category against which a candidate applied.

“When one has been considered NET-qualified by the UGC, the matter is not up for reinvestigation during a recruitment process, especially when neither the relevant Service Rules nor the advertisement calls for it,” Justice Brar added.

The court then examined the role of NET in the selection process. “Where NET is prescribed solely as a threshold eligibility condition, and the advertisement specifies that comparative merit will be determined on the basis of the subject knowledge test and interview, those notified criteria constitute the governing selection criteria,” Justice Brar observed.

The Bench added a candidate was, therefore, entitled to have her merit assessed exclusively by reference to them. “The NET score could not subsequently be converted into an additional merit criterion, a source of preferential weightage, or a disqualifying threshold for appointment against an unreserved post. To do so would amount to a post facto alteration of the notified conditions of selection and the impermissible introduction of a criterion of which candidates had no prior notice,” Justice Brar added.

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