Candidature Can't Be Denied For Trivial Mistakes In Online Recruitment Form: Himachal Pradesh High Court

Himachal Pradesh High Court held that bona fide and trivial errors in a recruitment application, such as inadvertent category selection, should not lead to cancellation of candidature, and candidates must be given an opportunity to rectify such mistakes.

Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua: “It was case of an inadvertent error, a bonafide error, which was committed probably at the end of the Cyber Café whose assistance was taken by the petitioner for filing the Online Recruitment Application.”

Background Facts:

The petitioner, Manjana applied online for the post of Constable (Female) in the Himachal Pradesh Police pursuant to an advertisement issued on 4^th October 2024. However, While filling the Online Recruitment Application in a Cyber Cafe, she mistakenly selected category of “Scheduled Caste”, though against this column the certificate uploaded was of “Scheduled Tribe” Category.

When the petitioner appeared for the Physical Efficiency Test, officials of the District Recruitment Committee noticed the discrepancy, while the Online Recruitment Application and her admit card mentioned "Scheduled Caste," the petitioner had mentioned "Scheduled Tribe" in the “Form of Recruitment” submitted at the registration counter.

The police officials conducting the test instructed her to submit a Scheduled Caste certificate. The petitioner expressed her inability to produce such a certificate, reiterating that she belonged to the Scheduled Tribe category and had already uploaded the appropriate certificate along with her application. She stated that she was unaware of the incorrect category having been ticked in her Online Recruitment Application.

Subsequently, the petitioner approached the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission with a written request to rectify the error in her Online Recruitment Application and change her category to Scheduled Tribe. However, the Public Service Commission rejected her request via email dated 29 March 2025.

Aggrieved by this rejection, the petitioner filed a writ petition before the High Court, seeking to quash the rejection email and to be permitted to sit in the written test as she had already qualified the physical test. 

Findings:

The Court observed that the petitioner had taken the help of a Cyber Cafe to fill her Online Recruitment Application. Considering, the admitted fact that she belonged to the Scheduled Tribe category, and had uploaded the valid certificate supporting this, her claim that the selection of the wrong category was inadvertent and bona fide was found to be credible.

While appearing for the Physical Efficiency Test, she had correctly filled in her category as Scheduled Tribe. The discrepancy only came to light when officials of the Police Department pointed it out. Based on the official records and the responses of the authorities, it appeared that the petitioner became aware of the mistake only then and she immediately submitted a representation to the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission to rectify the error.

Although the recruitment advertisement stated that any request for category rectification must be submitted at least 15 days prior to the Physical Efficiency Test, the Court held that this condition could not be used against the petitioner, as she was unaware of the error until the test date.

Furthermore, the advertisement itself contained a provision allowing category correction in cases where no relaxation had been claimed under the incorrect category. In this context, the Court emphasized that the petitioner had not availed of any benefit under the Scheduled Caste category and that her request should have been considered fairly.

In Vashist Narayan Kumar v/s The State of Bihar & Ors. the Supreme Court held that “after a candidate has participated in the selection process and cleared all the stages successfully, his candidature can only be cancelled, after careful scrutiny of the gravity of the lapse, and not for trivial omissions or errors. Law does not concern itself with trifles”.

Applying this principle, the High Court held that the facts of the present case did not indicate any misrepresentation or fraud on the part of the petitioner. The error was evidently inadvertent and likely arose due to the error of the Cyber Café personnel who assisted her in submitting the Online Recruitment Application.

The Court remarked that, since the petitioner's actual category remained Scheduled Tribe throughout, allowing her to correct the category in her application was not likely to prejudice any other candidate or affect the integrity of the recruitment process.

Thus, the Court allowed the writ petition and directed the Public Service Commissioner to permit the petitioner to change her category from Scheduled Caste to Scheduled Tribe in her application.

Case Name: Manjana v/s State of H.P. & Ors.

Case No.: CWP No.4768 of 2025

Date of Decision: 16.05.2025

For the petitioner: Dr. Lalit K. Sharma, Advocate.

For the respondents: Mr. Rajat Chaudhary, Assistant Advocate General, for respondents No. 1, 3 and 4. Mr. Vikrant Thakur, Advocate for respondent No.2.

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