Afeera Sania v. The State of Telangana

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THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SARATH + WRIT PETITION NO.17832 of 2023

%Dated 12.03.2026 # Ms.Afeera Sania …Petitioner

and

$ The State of Telangana, rep. by its Principal Secretary to Government, Home Department and another

…Respondents

! Counsel for Petitioner : Mrs.G.Uma Rani ^ Counsel for Respondents : Sri B.Krishna Learned Government Pleader

For Home (Services)/R-1.

Sri C.Rajashekar Reddy

Learned Standing Counsel

for

For respondent No.2.

< GIST :

? Cases referred :

1. 2025 SCC OnLine SC 720

2. (2021) 17 SCC 141

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IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA

AT HYDERABAD

*****

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SARATH WRIT PETITION No.17832 OF 2023

DATE:12.03.2026

Between:

Ms. Afeera Sania …Petitioner

AND

1. The State of Telangana, rep. by its Principal Secretary, Home Department, Hyderabad and another

…Respondents

ORDER:

1. Heard Smt.G.Uma Rani, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Sri B.Krishna, learned Government Pleader Home (Services) for respondent No.1 and Sri C.Rajashekar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the respondent No.2.

2. The learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that in pursuance to the Notification issued by the respondent No.2 vide Rc.No.42/Rect./Admn-1/2022, dated 25.04.2024, the petitioner has applied for the

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posts of Stipendiary Cadet Trainee (SCT) Police Constable (Civil), SCT Police Constable (AR) and Warders (Female) in Prisons and Correctional Service Department and she has qualified in the preliminary written examination that was held on 28.08.2022 and she also participated in the Physical Measurement Test and Physical Efficiently Test which were held on 19.02.2023 and the petitioner also qualified in the said tests. The petitioner qualified in the Final written examination and she was called for the certificate verification on 17.06.2023.

3. The learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the during the certificates verification, the respondent No.2 took an objection that as per the Notification, one must have passed Intermediate or its equivalent examination as on 01.07.2022 and the respondents have refused to accept the certificate produced by the petitioner on the ground that the

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same was issued on 22.07.2022 and the same is arbitrary and illegal.

4. The learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has studied in Central Board of Secondary Education i.e. Senior School Certificate Examination/Intermediate and due to Covid-19, the said examination was divided into two terms and though the petitoner has written examinations that were held between 02.05.2202 to 02.06.2022 and due to Covid-19 the results were delayed and the Marks Memo was issued to the petitioner on 22.07.2022. The petitioner also made representation to the respondent No.2 to accept her Certificate, but they refused to receive the representation and hence the present writ petition is filed seeking a direction to the respondents to receive the Certificate produced by the petitioner for considering her candidature for the post of SCT Police Constable and requested to direct the respondents to

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accept the document produced by the petitioner by allowing the writ petition.

5. The learned Standing Counsel basing on the counter filed by the respondent No.2 submits that in response to the Notification issued by the respondent No.2, the petitioner has applied for the post of SCT PC Civil and she also participated in the recruitment process and qualified in PWT, PMT/PET and FEW. At para No.18 (D) of the Notification it is specifically mentioned that the candidate must have passed Intermediate examination or its equivalent examination recognized by the State Govermnet as on 01.07.2022, whereas the certificate produced by the petitioner is dated 22.07.2022.

6. The learned Standing Counsel further submits that, in the Notification at Para No.18 of General Instructions it was clearly mentioned that the candidates applying for the examination should ensure

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themselves that they fulfill all the eligibility conditions for admission to the examination and their admission at all the stages of the Examination(s)/Test(s) will be purely provisional and shall be subject to satisfying the prescribed eligibility conditions. As per the settled principles of law, a candidate has to comply with all conditions/eligibility criteria as per the advertisement before cutoff date mentioned therein, unless extended by the recruitment authority. As the pass certificate produced by the petitioner is dated 22.07.2022, the same was refused as it was issued after cut-off date i.e. after 01.07.2022 and there are no merits and requested to dismiss the writ petition.

7. After hearing both sides and on perusing the record this Court is of the consider view that in pursuance to the Notification No. RC.42/Rec./Admn- 1/2022, dated 25.04.2022 issued by the respondent No.2, the petitioner applied for the post of SCT Police

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Constable (Civil), SCT Police Constable (AR) and Warders (Female) and she participated in the selection. The petitioner has qualified in the written test that was held on 28.08.2022 and she also participated in Physical Measurement Test and Physical Efficient Tests and as she has also qualified in the Final Examination and she was called for verification of the certificates on 17.06.2023. During the verification of the certificates, the respondent No.2 has refused to accept the qualification certificate produced by the petitioner on the ground that as per the Notification the candidate must have passed Intermediate Examination or its equivalent examination on or before 01.07.2022, whereas the Certificate produced by the petitoner was issued on 22.07.2022, which is after cut- off date as notified in the notification.

8. The contention of the petitioner is that though she had written examination between 02.05.2022 to

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02.06.2022, the Certificate was issued on 22.07.2022 and there is delay of only 21 days and as the examinations were held within the cut-off date and the petitioner is eligible for selection for the post.

9. On the other hand the contention of the respondnets is that it is specifically mentioned in the Notification at Para No.18 of the General Information that the candidates were requested to go through the Notification carefully and decide as to their eligibility before applying and entering the particulars completely online.

10. The relevant portion of the Notification Rc.No.41/Rect./Admn.1/2022, dated 25.04.2022 is extracted is as under:

"18. ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS (CANDIDATES TO ENSURE THEIR

ELIGIBILITY FOR THE EXAMINATION)

Candidates applying for the examination should ensure themselves that they fulfill all the eligibility conditions for admission to the examination. Their admission at all the stages

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of the Examinations(s)/Test(s) will be purely provisional and shall be subject to satisfying the prescribed eligibility conditions. xxx

D. Educational Qualification:

Must have passed Intermediate or its equivalent examination recognized by the State Government as on 1^st July, 2022.

11. The above said portion of the Notification clearly shows that the petitioner must have acquired the requisite qualification on or before 01.07.2022, but the certificate produced by the petitioner is dated 22.07.2022, therefore, the case of the petitioner cannot be considered and in view of the same, the respondents have rightly refused to accept the Certificate produced by the petitioner.

12. The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in

Soumen Paul and others Vs., Sharabhi Nayek and others ¹, held that the candidate must satisfy his eligibility criteria in terms of the date appointed in the

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Notification. The relevant portion of the said Judgment extracted as under:

"26. As per the decisions of this court in Bhupenderpal Singh, the candidate seeking public employment must satisfy his eligibility requirements in terms of the date appointed by the relevant service rule and, "if there is no cut-off date appointed by the Rule then such date as may be appointed for the purpose of advertisement calling for applications. Further, if is there is no such date appointed then eligibility criteria shall be with reference to the last date of appointed by which the applications have to be received"

(Emphasis added)

13. In another case, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in State of Bihar and other Vs., Madhu Kant Ranjan and another² held that a candidate has to comply with all the conditions as per the Notification before the cut-off date. The relevant portion of the said Judgment is extracted as under:

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"11. As per the settled proposition of law, a candidate/applicant has to comply with all the conditions/eligibility criteria as per the advertisement before the cut-off date mentioned therein unless extended by the recruiting authority. Also, only those documents, which are submitted alongwith the application form, which are required to be submitted as per the advertisement have to be considered. Therefore, when the respondent No.1 - original writ petitioner did not produce the photocopy of the NCC 'B' certificate alongwith the original application as per the advertisement and the same was submitted after a period of three years from the cut-off date and that too after the physical test, he was not entitled to the additional five marks of the NCC 'B' certificate. In these circumstances, the Division Bench of the High Court has erred in directing the appellants to appoint the respondent No.1 - original writ petitioner on the post of Constable considering the select list dated 08.09.2007 and allotting five additional marks of NCC 'B' certificate"

(Emphasis added)

14. The findings of the above Judgments squarely apply to the facts of the instant case and in view of the same, the respondents have rightly refused to accept the candidature of the petitioner as she did not

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possess the requisite qualification as per the Notification i.e. on or before 01.07.2022 and there are no merits and the writ petition is liable to be dismissed.

15. In view of the above findings, this writ petition is dismissed as devoid of merits. No order as to costs.

Miscellaneous applications pending, if any, in this Writ Petition, shall stand closed. _____________________

JUSTICE K.SARATH

Date:12.03.2026 trr

Note: LR copy to be marked