Candidate's Eligibility Is To Be Assessed Till Final Selection Is Made, Not Just On Last Application Submission Date: Himachal Pradesh HC

The Himachal Pradesh High Court (“Court”) bench of Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma held that when a candidate applies for any post, the eligibility is assessed till the final selection date and not just on the last date of submission of application.

Background of the case:

The Court had invited applications for the post of translator under Level II on 04.08.2022, from amongst the eligible class-III and Class -IV employees of the Registry of the court. Further, only those candidates were eligible to apply for the post who had lesser salary than a Level II employee.

50% of the seats were filled-up based on written test from amongst Class-III & Class-IV employees of the Registry having lesser pay grade than the translator. The other 50% were to be filled up by direct recruitment.

The petitioners who were employed as Class-III and Class -IV employees already, had applied for the post of translator qualified the written test and were called for an interview.

However, during the interview it came into light that the petitioners were promoted as senior assistants four months prior to the written test and their salaries were now equivalent to a Level II employee.

Therefore, the petitioner had become ineligible and were not granted marks in the interview and the recruitment was done through direct process.

The petitioner aggrieved by the result approached the court by filing the writ petition and submitted that the cut-off date for eligibility should be considered from the date of the circular and not from the date of selection.

Findings of the Court:

The court noted that the applications for the post of translators in the High Court of H.P. were invited on 04.08.2022. However, four months prior to the written test the petitioners were promoted as Senior Assistants and their salaries increased eventually.

The court remarked that according to the eligibility criteria, only employees with a lower pay grade than a Level II employee, were eligible for the said post and the petitioners before applying were well-versed with the fact.

Despite knowing that the selection would only be of the employees having lesser grade pay than that of the Translators, the petitioners still chose to accept the promotion four months prior to the written test. The salaries of the petitioners increased after the promotion which made them ineligible for the post of translator.

Based on the above, the court noted the petitioners were estopped from claiming their right for selection against the posts of Translators.

The court further remarked that “They cannot now be allowed to blow hot and cold in the same breath. Thus, principle of estoppel would be applied to them, as the eligibility criteria also specified that the application would be considered of candidates who have lesser pay than that of the Translators.”

The court noted that even though the petitioner was eligible for the post during the date of application, it became ineligible later due to its promotion before the written test.

So, the petitioners could not be allowed to take advantage of their promotion as well as seek consideration for appointment as Translators as they had voluntarily accepted the promotion.

Accordingly, the present writ petition was dismissed stating that a candidate's eligibility is assessed up to the point of final selection, not just based on the last application submission date.

Case Name: Ashish Kumar Rana and another v/s Hon'ble High Court of H.P. & Ors.

Case No.: CWP No. 4240 of 2023

Date of Decision: 11.04.2025

For the petitioners: Mr. Rajnish Maniktala Senior Advocate with Mr. Dinkar Bhaskar, Advocate. For the respondents : Mr. Rajiv Jiwan, Senior Advocate with Mr. Nitin Thakur, Advocate.

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