The Bombay High Court recently refused to entertain a plea filed by a man whose application to become a constable was rejected as he had signed the form in capital letters, which was not allowed as mentioned in the instructions of the selection process.
On April 22, 2012, the Union government published an advertisement inviting applications for recruitment of constables in Assam Rifles. The advertisement mentioned the instructions for filling applications, including one pertaining to the signature of candidates, which said, “Signature in capital letters of English shall not be accepted and application will be rejected.”
Harish Bisht had applied for the job, but signed the forms in capital letters in two places. The application was cancelled on the basis of this, and Mr. Bisht was informed of this on June 10, 2015, by the Regional Director, Government of India, Staff Selection Commission.
A Division Bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Sandeep Shinde, relied upon an affidavit filed by the Regional Director which said the result was declared on October 17, 2012, and the petition was filed on May 17, 2016.
On December 9, 2014, Mr. Bisht wrote a letter to the chairman of the Staff Selection Commission, in which he mentioned that he had been disqualified on the ground of signing in capital letters. The court said the letter supported the contention made in the reply that Mr. Bisht was aware of the declaration of the result and thereafter had repeated correspondence with the authorities concerned. It said he waited for an inordinately long time to file the petition, one year after the communication from the Regional Director.
The court also said, “Mr. Bisht cannot be permitted to invoke writ jurisdiction and the petition suffers from gross delay… Therefore, interference at such a belated stage cannot be made.”
The Bench rejected his plea and said, “after accepting the condition in the advertisement without protest and after participating in the selection process, Mr. Bisht cannot raise a grievance about illegalities in the selection process”.
