Ashok Kumar Yadav and Ors. vs. State of Haryana and Ors.

Facts

The order of High Court to quash and set aside certain selections made by the Haryana Public Service Commission (Commission) to the Haryana Civil Service (Executive) and other allied services has been challenged in present case.

Key Takeaways for Students

Legal Issue

• Whether the High Court rightly condemn the Chairman and members of the Commission as men without integrity, caliber, or qualification, and had corrupt motives?
• Whether the selections made by the Commission vitiated?
• Whether the allocation of as high a percentage of marks as 33.3 percent in the case of ex-service officers and 22.2 percent in the case of other candidates, for the viva voce test render the selection process arbitrary?

Holding

Condemning members: The Division Bench of the High Court cast serious aspersions on all the members of the Commission including the Chairman and observed that they did not satisfy the stringent test of "men of high integrity, caliber and qualification” as these condemnatory observations were made without making the Chairman Shri B. S. Lather and another member Shri Gurmesh Parkash Bishnoi a party in the writ petitions. This was clearly in violation of the principles of natural justice. Further, it was remarked that the Division Bench of the High Court was not justified in going into the question of whether the Chairman and members of the Commission were lacking in integrity, caliber, or qualification when the validity of their appointments was not challenged in the writ petitions nor was any relief claimed for setting aside their appointments.

Vitiated selection: This Court emphasized that it was not necessary to establish but it was sufficient to invalidate the selection process if it could be shown that there was a reasonable likelihood of bias. The Division Bench wrongly struck down the Commission's selections on the grounds that they were vitiated by arbitrariness or reasonable likelihood of bias.

Allocation of high percent in Viva: The allocation of 22.2 percent marks for the viva voce test would likely create a wider scope for arbitrariness. The court observed that the percentage of marks allocated for the viva voce test in both these cases is excessive but denied setting aside the selections made by the Commission after the lapse of almost two years, as the candidates selected have already been appointed to various posts and have been working on these posts since the last about two years. Further, the court directed that whatever selections are made by the Commission in the future shall be on the basis that the marks allocated for the viva voce test shall not exceed 12.2 percent in case of candidates belonging to the general category and 25 percent in case of ex-service officers.

Final Decision Appeal Allowed

Ratio

Allocation of high percent marks in the viva-voce test is excessive and can create arbitrariness in appointment to the Public Service Commission.