The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that vacancies in the Mewat cadre cannot be treated as having lapsed merely because candidates figuring in the merit lists of both the Rest of Haryana (ROH) and Mewat cadres opted to join ROH. Such vacancies remain part of the original recruitment and the candidate next in merit can be considered against them.
Justice Harpreet Singh Brar passed the order while disposing of connected writ petitions arising from recruitment of PGT, Home Science. The dispute concerned 48 posts advertised for ROH and five for Mewat. Against these, only 36 candidates were selected for ROH and none for Mewat, “despite availability of suitable candidates including the petitioners”.
The petitioners had cleared the Subject Knowledge Test with the prescribed 35-mark cutoff and appeared in the viva voce. They contended that no separate minimum cutoff for final selection had been prescribed and the vacant posts were being withheld arbitrarily.
They also challenged separate shortlisting for ROH and Mewat, arguing that 106 candidates—twice the 53 advertised posts—should have been called for interview and a common merit list prepared before cadre allocation according to preference.
The commission defended the process, saying the petitioners were outside the zone of consideration for Mewat and were consequently considered only for ROH. The court, however, noted that both cadres had been advertised together and a common selection process conducted. It observed that a candidate could figure in both merit lists but could not occupy two posts.
