The Punjab and Haryana high court has restrained the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) from conducting subject knowledge test for the post of Post Graduate Teachers (PGT). With this, the selection process on 250 posts of PGT (Mathematics) conducted by the HPSC has come to a halt.

The HC passed these orders while reserving its order on the plea alleging that a reserved category candidate, who had scored more marks than a general category candidate, has not been selected by the commissionin the screening test.The commission was to hold the subject knowledge test of those who were qualified in the screening test.
“In the meantime, the commission is directed to postpone the subject knowledge test pursuant to impugned advertisement no. 29 of 2023 and 44 of 2023 dated June 24, 2023,” observed the HC in its order released on Tuesday.

Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya of the HC passed these orders while reserving its order in the matter. The main issue before the HC is that the petitioner, who belonged to the reserved category, scored more marks than the selected candidates under the general category, but she was not declared as qualified because the merit of the petitioner was being considered in her own reserved category only.

The matter reached the HC in the wake of a petition filed by Parmila, a resident of Neerpur, Mahendergarh district, Haryana. She had sought directions to quash the result of the screening test vide which the petitioner had not been selected for appearing in the subject knowledge test for PGT in Mathematics.

The petitioner, a permanent resident of Haryana, is aggrieved on account of the alleged arbitrariness in the selection process being undertaken by the HPSC, as a result of which, despite scoring more marks than the candidate in the general/unreserved category, she was not selected in the screening test and was not eligible to appear in the next stage of examination i.e. subject knowledge test on account of the erroneous conditions incorporated in the advertisements.

The petitioner said that she scored 41.85 marks out of 100 in BC (B) category but was not selected. However, those who had scored even 38.04 marks in the general category had been selected.

The petitioner submitted that as per the condition specified in the advertisement at the time of the screening test, candidates will be shortlisted for the next stage category-wise, however in an erroneous and arbitrary manner, reserved category candidates who have scored more than general/unreserved category candidates are not being treated in the open unreserved category, as a result of which rights of such candidates, including that of the petitioner, have been seriously jeopardised. It was also stated that such an act on the part of the commission is in clear violation to the right of equality provided under the constitution.

It has been contended that candidates who are higher in merit are required to be appointed against the general category on the basis of the joint merit list, irrespective of the category in which they have applied.