The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court (HC) recently refused to interfere with the decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to cancel the results 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 examination was cancelled in 2019 owing to gross irregularities, malpractices and corruption committed by a member of the examination committee responsible for conducting the test.
However, several candidates moved the high court against the government’s decision contending that as most candidates did not benefit from the said malpractice, the untainted candidates who were declared eligible after a court-ordered inquiry should be promoted.
While adjudicating upon the issue, a 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 the inquiry 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 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 the very legitimacy of the recruitment process,” he added.
While stressing that malpractices and deficiencies of serious nature had been found in the inquiries, 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 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-member 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.
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