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TMI Blog2006 (6) TMI 538X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... os. 32929 and 32930 of 2005, R. Karthikeyan and G. Thalai Mutharasu, Advs. in W.P. Nos. 32928, 9153, 9255 and 9662 of 2005, M.A.P. Thangavel, Adv. in W.P. No. 32932 of 2005, M. Maharaja, Adv. in W.P. Nos. 32950, 32951 and 32952 of 2005, M. Michael Bharathi, Adv. in W.P. Nos. 9250, 9755, 9797 and 10030 of 2005, A. Edwin Prabahar, Adv. in W.P. No. 9246 of 2005, M. Kumar, Adv. in W.P. No. 9863 of 2005, G. Sankaran, Adv. in W.P. Nos. 32922, 32933, 34342 and 38947 of 2005, S. Nagamuthu, Adv. in W.P. No. 32383 of 2005, Thanjai, Adv. in W.P. Nos. 34926 to 34934 of 2005, S.T.S. Murthi, Adv. in W.P. Nos. 35449 and 36114 to 36116 of 2005, C. Jagadish, Adv. in W.P. No. 36041 of 2005, S. Vedavalli, Adv. in W.P. No. 36796 of 2005, R. Saravana Kumar, Adv. in W.P. No. 36910 of 2005, P. Tamilvel, Adv. in W.P. No. 37294 of 2005, S. Selvathiramurugan, Adv. in W.P. No. 37815 of 2005 and M.R. Sivakumar, Adv. in W.P. No. 38006 of 2005 For the Respondents : N.R. Chandran, Adv. General Assisted by R. Sureshkumar, Adv. for Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and V. Karthikeyan, Addl. Govt. Pleader (Education) ORDER P. SATHASIVAM, J. 1. A simple, but important question having far reac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... necessary information as asked for and enclosed the requisite fee and copies of relevant documents as required by the respondent. The application is complete in every aspect and the approach of the respondent that she did not sign the application form is not correct. The rejection of her application form by the respondent is arbitrary and not sustainable. (c) Similar averments have been made in all the writ petitions. 4. According to the respondent, namely, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, by Notification dated 1.7.2005 applications were invited from candidates for direct recruitment to the post of Assistant Surgeon (General/ Specialty) in the Tamil Nadu Medical Service for the year 2003-2004. The last date prescribed for receipt of filled in applications in the office of Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission was 4.8 .2005 and the same was mentioned in the notification issued by the Commission. In response to the notification, 7123 candidates applied to the Commission and out of 7123 candidates, initially a total number of 5317 candidates were found eligible to take up the examination for recruitment and the applications of 1306 candidates were found defective for one or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e petitioner gone through the declaration at page-2 of the application carefully, no confusion would have arisen. It is the duty of the petitioner to verify the filled in application before submitting the same to the Commission and the petitioner cannot expect that the omissions would be got rectified by any means. 7. In the light of the above pleadings, we heard learned Counsel for the petitioners and learned Advocate General for the respondent. 8. The main contentions raised on behalf of the petitioners are as follows: 1.All columns are duly filled up and only in declaration column, candidates did not sign due to ambiguous formatting of the application form and on this ground the applications cannot be rejected; 2.The failure to sign column 24 would not affect in any way, since the applicants signed all other places. 3.Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) permitted some candidates to rectify certain defects and failed to treat the petitioners on par with them. 4.The reason for rejection of applications is flimsy, unjust and arbitrary and it is only an irregularity which can be rectified at any stage of recruitment. 5.The respondent had not given a cha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... places one at the first page and in two at the second page. 12. It is not in dispute that in paragraph 17 of the Commission's Instructions etc. to Candidates, necessary instructions have been given and the applicants are also informed that failure to fulfill all the columns will render the applications summarily rejected. Column 17 of Commission's Instructions etc. to Candidates reads as under. 17. Application must reach the Controller of Examinations on or before the prescribed date. Applications received after that date or applications which are not signed or applications which are not in the proper form or which are not correctly and completely filled or in respect of which the prescribed certificates and documents are not received on or before that date and application which do not otherwise fulfill the terms of these instructions and the Notification / Advertisement will be considered defective and will be summarily rejected. The filling in of the application form correctly and completely and sending with it all the documents as required in the Commission's Notification / Advertisement and Instructions, etc., to Candidates form part of the test for s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 24 and below the declaration column is curable. In view of the above submission, we verified the factual position in the above referred to decisions. It is not in dispute that both the decisions relate to submission of Tender Forms. On going through the factual details and the ratio laid down therein, in view of the specific details furnished in the Information Brochure and Notification issued by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, we are satisfied that the same are not helpful to the petitioners. As a matter of fact, in the latter decision, viz. the defect that was pointed out by the Government Agency was that though the earnest money under the terms of tender notice was permitted to be deposited only by cash or by demand draft drawn on the State Bank of India, the payment of earnest money was sent by way of certified cheque of Union Bank of India and in that situation, the Supreme Court after pointing out that the payment of earnest money by certified cheque of Union Bank of India, drawn on its own Branch could be treated as sufficient compliance of the terms. Their Lordships have also held that it could not be said that the authority inviting the tenders could not waive th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se, subject to the outcome of the writ petition. It was further informed before the learned Judge that the petitioner was successful in the written examinations and also attended viva-voce test and the respondents found that he secured the required minimum marks for attending the oral test. His result was kept in a sealed cover and the same was opened before the learned Judge who noted that the petitioner secured 216.50 marks in the written test out of 400 and in the oral test he secured 30 out of 60 marks and in all, the petitioner secured 246.50 marks. In the circumstances, the learned Judge came to the conclusion that the petitioner is a meritorious candidate, that too belonging to Scheduled Caste and arrived at a conclusion that minuscule mistake committed by the petitioner should not loom large in order to deprive of his very valuable right. It is not in dispute that there also the notification of the Commission made it clear that all columns are to be filled up and the applicants are to sign at all the places indicated therein. In spite of the specific instructions, the petitioner therein has not signed at a place where he has to sign in the application form. The academic e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... General relied on the following two decisions of the Supreme Court, (i) W.B. State Electricity Board v. Patel Engineering Co. 2001 (2) SCC 451; and (ii) Rajsekhar Gogoi v. State of Assam 2001 (75) ECC 704 in support of his stand. It is true that both the decisions relate to Government contracts and submission of tenders. The following observation made in 2001 (2) SCC 451 (cited supra) is relevant. 23. The mistakes/errors in question, it is stated, are unintentional and occurred due to the fault of computer termed as a repetitive systematic computer typographical transmission failure . It is difficult to accept this contention. A mistake may be unilateral or mutual but it is always unintentional. If it is intentional it ceases to be a mistake. Here the mistakes may be unintentional but it was not beyond the control of respondents 1 to 4 to correct the same before submission of the bid. Had they been vigilant in checking the bid documents before their submission, the mistakes would have been avoided. Further, correction of such mistakes after one-and-a-half months of opening of the bids will also be violative of Clauses 24.1, 24.3 and 29.1 of the ITB. In para 31 their Lordship ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the authorities when respondent 4 had not furnished the requisite particulars along with her tender. 11. We are therefore, of the opinion that as the tender itself of respondent 4 was liable to be rejected because of lack of particulars as stated hereinabove, no further question arises. It is clear from the above decisions that it is imperative for either a candidate or a tenderer or a person concerned to furnish full information as required in order to verify the same by the authority concerned. In the case on hand though particulars have been furnished, as pointed out earlier, in the absence of proper authentication by the persons concerned by affixing their signatures, their applications are liable to be rejected. 22. Learned Advocate General has also placed reliance on the Full Bench decision of Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Indu Gupta v. Director, Sports Punjab, Chandigarh. In the case before the Full Bench, the petitioner applied for admission to B. Tech. course. She claimed the benefit of reservation under sports category. She could not get the gradation certificate countersigned by the Director of Sports, Punjab, and so she was not considered for adm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the brochure have been issued by Notification of the Punjab Government dated 30th January, 1997. The terms and conditions regarding eligibility, reservation, allocation of seats, gradation certificate, and public declaration are binding on the candidates as well as the party issuing the said brochure for the period in question. In para 9, their Lordships by referring the earlier Full Bench decision in the case of Raj Singh v. Maharshi Dayanand University 1994 (4) RSJ 289 disapproved the liberal construction of the terms and conditions of the brochure and specified the need for their strict adherence to avoid unnecessary prejudice to the candidates or the authority during the course of admission. In the same paragraph, by referring the Division Bench decision in the case of Madhvika Khurana (minor) v. M.D. University in Civil Writ Petition No. 15367 of 1991, their Lordships observed that the students seeking admission to the professional courses are even otherwise matured enough and supposed to understand the full implication of filling the admission form and compliance with the instructions contained in the brochure. In paragraph 10 their Lordships noticed another Full Bench de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e where they used pre-emptory language cannot be held to be merely declaratory. They have to be and must necessarily to be treated as mandatory. Their compliance would be essential otherwise the basic principle of fairness in such highly competitive entrance examinations would stand frustrated. Vesting of discretion in an individual in such matters, to waive or dilute the stipulated conditions of the brochure would per se introduce the element of discrimination, arbitrariness and unfairness. Such unrestricted discretion in contravention to the terms of the brochure would decimate the very intent behind the terms and conditions of the brochure, more particularly, where the cut off date itself has been provided in the brochure. The brochure has the force of law. Submission of applications complete in all respects is a sine qua non to the valid acceptance and consideration of an application for allotment of seats in accordance with the terms prescribed in the brochure. 13. Repeated affirmation of the principle by different Full Benches of this Court while relying upon the judgments of the Hon'ble Apex Court, unambiguously contains the dictum that the brochure declared before th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sue exhaustively. We make it clear that the above principles are applicable not only to applications calling for employment, but also to the cases relating to the admission of students to various courses. We are constrained to make this observation to prevent avoidable prejudice to other applicants at large. 26. It is also contended that the respondent has permitted some of the candidates to rectify certain defects and failed to treat the petitioners on par with them. With regard to the said claim, in para 17 of the counter affidavit, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission has specifically explained that on receipt of rejection memos and on non-receipt of hall tickets, many representations were sent to the Commission's office, praying to permit the applicants to take up written examinations relating to the recruitment for the posts of Assistant Surgeon. It is further stated that on re-scrutiny of the rejected applications of the candidates, it was found that 725 candidates had not enclosed the format (meant exclusively for Assistant Surgeon) and the Commission decided to reconsider and admit those 725 candidates who failed to enclose such format in a separate sheet, and wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ioner concerned for correction and representation. The Rule further makes it clear that the same shall be represented after compliance with all the defects pointed out within 10 days after the notification of the defect. It is not in dispute that there is no similar statutory Rule or Clause in the Notification or Information Brochure. Accordingly, we reject the said contention also. Before winding up, it is to be noted that the Notification for calling for applications for the posts of Assistant Surgeon (General Speciality) Tamil Nadu Medical Services for the year 2003-2004 was notified on 01.07.2005. The last date for receipt of application by the Government was 04.08.2005. It is brought to our notice that number of candidates applied for the post were 7123 out of which 5317 candidates were found eligible to take up the examinations and 1806 candidates were found ineligible and 1182 were found unsigned the applications, the petitioners challenged the same in these writ petitions. Though it is pointed out that some of the persons who wrote the written examinations on the orders of the Court were successful, in view of our discussion and ultimate conclusion, we are not inclined ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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