In a critical ruling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has emphasized the necessity for recruitment agencies to strictly adhere to the terms and conditions outlined in their own advertisements. The judgment came while addressing a petition filed by Deepak Kumar and others against the Haryana Staff Selection Commission’s (HSSC) candidate shortlist for police constable positions.
Justice Jagmohan Bansal, presiding over the bench, underscored that deviation from advertised recruitment protocols leads to chaos and undermines the rule of law. “If it is permitted, there would be chaos and uncertainty. Selection would be at the caprice and whims of the recruitment agency, which cannot be permissible,” he stated.
The controversy arose when the HSSC prioritized disabled ex-servicemen and their family members over other ex-servicemen candidates during the shortlisting process for the main test, despite the latter having higher merit scores in the preliminary Common Entrance Test (CET). According to the petition, the recruitment advertisement specified that disabled ex-servicemen and their family members should only be prioritized if suitable candidates from the broader ex-servicemen category were unavailable.
The court found that the Commission had overstepped its bounds by applying this priority at the stage of the main test instead of at the final selection, as stipulated in the advertisement and government instructions issued in March 2022. Justice Bansal remarked, “The intention of the respondent in preparing the priority list at the stage of the written test may be just and fair, however, intention cannot substitute the terms and conditions of the advertisement/instructions which are categoric and quite clear.”
