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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court at Lucknow Bench recently refused to interfere with the decision of the state government of Uttar Pradesh to cancel the result of the "Ziledari Qualifying Examination, 2018" and conduct a fresh examination for promotion to the post of Ziledars in the Irrigation and Water Resources Department.

The result of the said examination was cancelled in 2019 owing to gross irregularities, malpractices and corruption committed by a member of the examination committee which was responsible for conducting the examination.

However, several candidates moved the high court against the government's decision contending that since most of the candidates did not get benefited from the said malpractice, therefore, the untainted candidates who had been declared eligible after a court-ordered enquiry, should be promoted.

While adjudicating upon the issue, the bench of Justice Dinesh Sharma referred to the ruling of the Supreme Court in Sachin Kumar & Ors vs Delhi Subordinate Service (2021) and said that "where the recruitment to public employment stands vitiated as a consequence of systemic fraud or irregularities, the entire process becomes illegitimate".

Justice Singh opined that large-scale irregularities including those which have the effect of denying equal access to similarly circumstanced candidates would erode the credibility of the selection process.

The judge also noted that in the present matter, as per the report of an enquiry committee which was constituted by the Engineer-in-chief to segregate tainted and untainted candidates, who had participated in the qualifying Examination, 2018, there was no possibility to do so.

In view of the same, Justice Singh said that the court should ensure that the recruitment process is fair, impartial, and as per the mandate of statutory prescription and equality clause as enshrined under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

"Recruitment has to be fair, transparent and accountable, if there are irregularities and malpractices and illegality in the recruitment process, it would undermine very legitimacy of the recruitment process," he added. 

Therefore, while stressing that malpractices and deficiencies of serious nature had been found in the enquiries which had impacted the very legitimacy of the entire examination process, Justice Singh opined that the decision of the Government to cancel the entire examination could not be held to be irrational or arbitrary.

Accordingly, he dismissed the writ petition and directed the respondent authorities to conduct the examination and publish its result within a period of next 60 days from the date of the order. 

Moreover, "to ensure fairness, sanctity and integrity of the examination", the single judge bench also constituted a five members committee to supervise the entire process of the examination.

"The State is not siding with anyone, but it is only concerned to ensure the fairness, sanctity and integrity of the examination for which the tainted result of the examination has been cancelled," Justice Singh noted. 

Case Title: Desh Raj Singh And 8 Others v. State of UP and 2 Others