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The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed a judicial aspirant to be considered in the reserved category of Scheduled Caste (SC) instead of the General Category for the purposes of the Delhi Judicial Services Examination - 2022. The applicant had realised, after the admit cards were issued, that she had mistakenly applied under the General Category.

"Clearly, a person committing a bona fide mistake, which does not cause prejudice to any person, should be given an opportunity to rectify the same", observed a division bench of Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Amit Mahajan.

One Charu Kain who had appeared for the Delhi Judicial Service Preliminary Examination, 2022 as a General Category candidate, approached the High Court seeking a direction for being considered in the SC category.

Kain, who was currently posted as an Additional Civil Judge, Junior Division, Uttar Pradesh Judicial Services had stated that she has secured 119.5 marks, which was admittedly above the cut-off (115.5 marks) for the SC category.

Court noted that there were eight vacancies for the Reserved Category and therefore, the cut-off mark for the appearance was fixed on the basis of eighty candidates clearing the preliminary examination, however, in all eighty-one candidates had been selected as the last two candidates in the order of merit had scored 115.5 marks.

Kain was not considered in this category as she had applied under the General Category and the cut-off for the General Category was higher than 119.5. Also, after the admit cards were issued, Kain had not taken any immediate steps to correct the said error as according to her, the time was too short.

"She appeared for the preliminary examination and filed the present petition only after discovering that she would make the cut-off, if she was considered as a Reserved Category candidate", Court noted.

However, pressing her argument, Kain relied on Kavita Choudhary v. Registrar (Examination), wherein the Rajasthan High Court had taken a liberal view that the mistakes which do not prejudice any other person, should be permitted to be rectified. 

Relying on said judgment, the division bench said,

"In the present case, it is clear that the petitioner’s mistake is a bona fide one; she derived no benefit from submitting an incorrect application disclosing her category as the general category. She had further compounded the mistake by not seeking immediate rectification as soon as she became aware of the same."

Accordingly, the Court found that no prejudice would be caused to any person and the matter regarding the examination had not proceeded to a stage, which rendered it inapposite to correct this mistake.

The plea of Kain was allowed with a direction to submit an undertaking to the respondent requesting the respondent to permit her to rectify the application to disclose her category as an SC category instead of General category and to treat her candidature accordingly.

Case Title: MS CHARU KAIN vs. HIGH COURT OF DELHI