VINAY SHARMA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CM is allowed as prayed for. The accompanying documents at Annexures A-1 to A-3 are taken on record.

(2.) Petitioner seeks a mandamus directing the Haryana Staff Selection Commission to consider his candidature for the post of PGT (Chemistry) under the Economically Backward Person in General Caste Category (hereinafter to be referred to as the EBPG Category).

(3.) Counsel submits that petitioner had applied for the post in question in terms of submitting the online application form in response to advertisement dated 28.06.2015 (Annexure P-1) issued by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission. However, in the application the petitioner on account of an inadvertent error mentioned his category as General whereas the petitioner already possessed a certificate of the EBPG Category dated 08.08.2013 (Annexure P-8) which was much prior to the date of the advertisement. Counsel has argued that under such circumstances petitioner cannot be denied the benefit of reservation provided for the EBPG Category and the bona fide error committed by the petitioner at the stage of submission of online application form ought to be permitted to be corrected. Counsel argues that such an error should have been permitted to be corrected at the stage of scrutiny of documents and since the petitioner was already in possession of the requisite certificate of belonging to the EBPG Category dated 08.08.2013 and which was prior to the date of issuance of the advertisement, there is no fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the petitioner. Heavy reliance is placed by counsel upon judgment passed by the Coordinate Bench in CWP No.14863 of 2017 (Sarla v. State of Haryana and others) decided on 31.10.2018 (Annexure A-2) and wherein the claim of the petitioner therein namely Sarla for being considered under the EBPG Category was allowed even though in the application form Backward Class Category had been mentioned. Counsel further contends that the judgment rendered by the Writ Court in Sarla's case (supra) stands affirmed by virtue of dismissal of Letters Patent Appeal No.320 of 2019 (Haryana Staff Selection Commission v. Sarla and others) decided on 22.02.2019 (Annexure A-3).