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Allahabad High Court · body

2016 DIGILAW 1015 (ALL)

MANJU CHAUHAN v. STATE OF U. P.

2016-03-18

KRISHNA MURARI, RAGHVENDRA KUMAR

body2016
JUDGMENT By the Court.—Petitioner has sought to invoke extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a mandamus to command the U.P. Public Service Commission, respondent No. 2 and its examination controller, respondent No. 3 to permit her to appear in Combined State/Upper Subordinate (General Recruitment) Examination, 2016 and Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services (Special Recruitment) Examination, 2016. 2. U.P. Public Service Commission issued an advertisement No. A-1/E-1/2016 dated 11.1.2016 inviting applications for filling up 328 posts of Upper Subordinate Services. Last date for submitting the application form online was 11.2.2016. The advertisement dated 11.1.2016 provided the following guidelines to be followed by the applicants for filling their applications. “NECESSARY INFORMATION TO APPLICANTS FILLING THEIR APPLICATIONS THROUGH ON-LINE This advertisement is also available on the Commission’s website http://uppsc.up.nic.in. The online application system is applicable for applying against this advertisement. Applications sent by any other mode shall not be entertained hence candidates are advised to apply On-line only. In connection with On-line application, candidates are advised to go through thoroughly the instructions given as under and apply accordingly : 1. When the candidate clicks “ALL NOTIFICATIONS/ADVERTISEMENTS” on the Commission’s website http://uppsc.up.nic.in the On-line advertisement shall be automatically displayed, wherein there shall be 3 parts given as below : (i) User instructions (ii) View Advertisement (iii) Apply A list of all the advertisements will be displayed in which “On-line System” is applicable. The instructions for filling “On-line form” have been given in User Instruction. The Candidates desirous to see the advertisement will have to click before ‘View Advertisement’ to which they are desirous to see, full advertisement will be displayed alongwith sample snapshots of ON-LINE Application Procedure. Click on “Apply” for On-line Application. On clicking “Apply”, Candidate Registration will be displayed. On-line application will be completed in three stages: First Stage: Basic Registration form will be displayed on clicking the ‘Candidate Registration’ respective to Examination. After filling the Basic Registration from on clicking the ‘submit’ button, the registration of First stage shall be over. Thereafter ‘Candidate Registration Acknowledgement’ shall be displayed which can be printed by Clicking the ‘Print’ Button. Second Stage: There shall be two options for depositing the fees which are E-challan and I-collect, which can be deposited in State Bank of India or Punjab National Bank. The candidates having Net Banking facility in any of these two banks may deposit the fees through I-collect. Second Stage: There shall be two options for depositing the fees which are E-challan and I-collect, which can be deposited in State Bank of India or Punjab National Bank. The candidates having Net Banking facility in any of these two banks may deposit the fees through I-collect. After taking the option of E-Challan or I-Collect, Examination fees payment details will be displayed. On selecting the bank to deposit the fees through E-Challan, the E-challan of concerned bank SBI/PNB will be displayed in which there shall be Candidate’s Registration No., Name, Date of Birth and Fee Amount. The candidates will have to go with E-Challan (in the Bank which is opted by the Candidates themselves) to any branch of the Bank and deposit the fees and take one copy of E-Challan and keep with them safely. On the copy of the E-Challan given by the Bank transaction ID/Journal No. and date shall be mentioned which shall be used at the time of filling the form at third stage. Third Stage: After depositing the fee in the Bank, the candidates two day after, on the working day (after 2.00 p.m.) shall enter information On-line in the format, available on Commission’s website by clicking “Submit Application Form”. The photo and signature, duly scanned shall be uploaded also. The candidate should scan his photograph and signature in the prescribed size (the size will be mentioned at the specified spot in the On-line application). This should also be kept in notice that the photo must be latest passport size. In case the photo and signature, scanned in the prescribed size, are not uploaded, then the On-line system will not accept it. The procedure related for scanning of the photo and signature is laid down in the Appendix-1. After filling in all entries in the format, the candidates may click “View application form” to see for themselves that all entries and informations are correctly entered and after satisfying themselves should click “Submit” button to forward the same to the Commission. It is essential that the candidate should fill all informations On-line correctly according to the instructions given and click the ‘Submit’ button by the last date prescribed for submission of the application form. If the candidate does not click the “Submit” button, the application shall not be completed finally and the candidate shall be accountable for this. It is essential that the candidate should fill all informations On-line correctly according to the instructions given and click the ‘Submit’ button by the last date prescribed for submission of the application form. If the candidate does not click the “Submit” button, the application shall not be completed finally and the candidate shall be accountable for this. After clicking the ‘Submit’ button, the candidate may take a print out of the application to preserve it with them. In the event of any discrepancy, the candidate will be required to submit the said print-out in the office of the Commission, otherwise his/her request shall not be entertained.” 3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that on 31.1.2016 at about 18:52 IST, the petitioner applied online application form and was granted registration number and, thus, first stage was successfully completed. Thereafter, the petitioner applied for E-challan at the State Bank of India and a reference number was allotted and the petitioner deposited the requisite amount. Thereafter, petitioner completed the final step of filling up desired details required in the online form and it was shown on the website that the application of the petitioner is processing and, thus, all the three stages were completed. Subsequently, when the petitioner again visited the website for her admit card for participating in the preliminary examination, it was shown that she had not filled the third stage of the application form. Petitioner made a representation in this regard before the Commission, but no heed was given. Learned counsel for the petitioner alleged arbitrariness on the part of the Commission or some fault in the software system of the Commission. 4. Shri Nisheeth Yadav appearing for the Commission while opposing the writ petition submitted that petitioner did not complete the third stage of filling in the application form, as such, her online application form could not be submitted till the last date, i.e., 11.2.2016. 4. Shri Nisheeth Yadav appearing for the Commission while opposing the writ petition submitted that petitioner did not complete the third stage of filling in the application form, as such, her online application form could not be submitted till the last date, i.e., 11.2.2016. He also pointed out, on the basis of the instructions received by the Commission, that subsequently even in response the advertisement dated 9th February, 2016 extending the last date of submitting the online application form from 11.2.2016 to 16.2.2016, she did not complete the third stage of filling the online application form and once she failed to submit the application form, neither there has been any arbitrariness on behalf of the Commission nor there was any fault in the software system and, thus, petitioner is not entitled for the relief being claimed in the writ petition. 5. As already noticed, detail guidelines were provided in the advertisement for submitting the application form. It appears that the petitioner though successfully completed the first and second stage of the required guidelines, but did not complete the third stage of filling the application form online. In case, the online application form would have been filled up by her successfully, she would have got the print out of the same. This shows that the online application form was not submitted by her or she committed some such error, on account of which, the software of the Commission did not accept the same. 6. The Commission while issuing advertisement, had clearly placed all the candidates on notice of the fact that the process of submitting application, involves three stages. In the first stage, candidate is required to visit the website for registration. In the second stage, the candidate has to submit the examination fees through prescribed electronic mode in specific bank or banks and the E-challan given by the bank transaction, ID/Journal number and the date shall be maintained to be used at the time of filling the form at third stage. In the third and final stage, the candidate has to submit the application online and is also required to upload duly scanned photo and signature and after clicking the ‘Submit’ button to take a print out of the application form to preserve it with him. 7. In the third and final stage, the candidate has to submit the application online and is also required to upload duly scanned photo and signature and after clicking the ‘Submit’ button to take a print out of the application form to preserve it with him. 7. Having regard to clear stipulation contained in the advertisement issued by the Commission and the instructions to the candidate, all candidates were placed on notice in regard to process and also of the consequences, in case, of a breach. 8. There is no material on record of the writ petition to demonstrate before us that the petitioner filled in the online application form successfully, but it was not accepted on the website. On the contrary, the copy of the instructions of the Commission clearly goes to show that the petitioner did not complete the third stage, i.e., did not fill the online application form and even after extension of last date of submission to 16.2.2016, she did not avail the said benefit. 9. Non-compliance with the schedule and the procedure would invite the consequences, which was clearly specified, namely, the rejection of the candidature of the applicant. 10. The issue, whether to become eligible to appear in the examination, it is mandatory for a candidate to complete all the stages notified by the Commission, came up for consideration before a Full Bench of this Court in Writ Petition No. 7401 of 2015 (Rajendra Patel v. State of U.P. and others) dated 11.8.2015. The Full Bench held that all the stages notified by the Commission for a candidate to become eligible to appear in the examination, are mandatory in nature and if any condition is not satisfied, the Commission shall be justified in excluding said candidate from the examination. 11. In the case in hand, admittedly, the third stage of submission of the online application form was not completed by the petitioner as per guidelines and, as such, relief prayed for in the writ petition cannot be granted. Once the Full Bench has held that stages notified are mandatory to be completed by the candidate to become eligible to appear in the examination, no interference can be made by us on the basis of misplaced sympathy, as the same shall interfere with the schedule of the examination fixed by the Commission. 12. Once the Full Bench has held that stages notified are mandatory to be completed by the candidate to become eligible to appear in the examination, no interference can be made by us on the basis of misplaced sympathy, as the same shall interfere with the schedule of the examination fixed by the Commission. 12. The aforesaid view being taken by us also find support from the Division Bench judgment rendered in Writ Petition No. 12256 of 2016, Ms. Sarika Singh v. U.P. Public Service Commission and another, vide judgment and order dated 16.3.2016. The writ petition, accordingly, fails and stands dismissed summarily.