Candidate has to be eligible till last date of forms: CAT

A candidate has to be eligible for a post in govt department till the last date for submission of form in case no other specific date for holding the requisite qualification is mentioned in the advertisement, the CAT has held.

"It is trite law that a cut-off date either should be specified in the rules or in the advertisements and if it is not mentioned therein then the last date of submission of applications should be the cut-off date on which the candidate should possess the requisite eligibility criteria," the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has said.

It passed the order on a plea of Suresh Kumar whose candidature for the post of engineer with the CPWD was rejected for want of requisite qualification as on 31^stDecember 2007. He did not possess the requisite diploma.

The tribunal also referred to an apex court's ruling holding that in absence of any cut-off date specified in the advertisement or in the rules, the last date for filing of an application form would be considered as such.

The CAT, comprising members Shanker Raju and Veena Chhotray, pulled up the Centre for violating its own rules by issuing admit cards to other candidates even before they became eligible for the post.

The CPWD had issued admit cards to other candidates even when they were not possessing the diploma, it noted, terming the decision as an example of "irrationality and discrimination".

The CAT allowed Kumar's plea, declaring him eligible for the post which depended on the outcome of results.

Kumar had appeared in the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE), 2008 for the post of junior engineer in CPWD and was not possessing diploma in civil engineering as on 30^th December 2007, the last date of submission of forms.

Kumar had contended that earlier in LDCE 2008, no cut-off date was prescribed and as a past practice, the cut-off date was always the last date for submission of application forms.