UNION OF INDIA Vs. SUNEEL KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, i.e., Union of India and others, have filed the present writ petition challenging the order dtd. 16/3/2021, passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal [in short "CAT"], Principal Bench, New Delhi, in Original Application [OA] No. 1302/2018 and Miscellaneous Application [MA] No. 558/2021. The operative portion of the order dtd. 16/3/2021 reads as under:

(2.) In brief, the facts are that the present petitioners initiated a recruitment process to fill up 5679 vacancies of Khallasi (Group 'D') in the grade pay of Rs. 1800.00 vide Notice No. 220-E/Open Mkt./RRC/2013 dtd. 30/12/2013. The respondent herein had applied in response to the said advertisement. The directions regarding filling up of the application form and the process of examination were also notified via the aforementioned recruitment notice dtd. 30/12/2013. The mode of selection involved a two-stage process including the written examination and the successful candidates had to go through the Physical Efficiency Test (PET). The candidates were required to go through all instructions before filling their applications. Clause 10.7 of the instructions regarding rejection of candidature reads as under:

(3.) As per the detailed instructions, signatures of the candidates on the application form, admit card, attendance sheet and OMR sheet must tally. The respondent appeared in the written examination but his name was not included in the list of successful candidates short listed for PET. The reason was that signature of the respondent were in different style and format on the application form initially submitted by him and on the OMR sheet filled during the written examination. Hence, he was not called for second stage of selection process, i.e., PET. As per the petitioners, the candidature of the respondent was rejected in March, 2015 but he approached the learned CAT belatedly in 2018 by filing the aforementioned OA.