The Rajasthan High Court has emphasized that determining a cut-off date for recruitment processes is solely the prerogative of the employer. This cut-off date was applied uniformly to all applicants, and the Court ruled against making exceptions for specific participants.

The Court said:

“It is a settled position of the law that the setting and beholding of a cut-off date falls purely within the domain of the employer, to be decided and/or imposed in accordance with the necessities accruing to them and the administration of the concerned examination.”

The single-headed bench of Justice Sameer Jain considered a petition filed by the petitioner, who had applied for the position of "Assistant Town Planner" following an advertisement for the selection process. The advertisement specified that even final-year students were eligible to apply, provided they submitted their qualification mark sheets before the written examination date.

According to the petitioner's case, by the date of the written examination for the post, she had completed all theory papers and coursework required for her final year course, except for her dissertation. The results of this dissertation were released after the date of the written examination.

The petitioner's candidature for the post of Assistant Town Planner was not considered by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission due to her failure to submit the result of her dissertation before the specified cut-off date, which was before the date of the written examination. The petitioner challenged this government decision by filing a petition before the Court.

The petitioner argued that the delay in submitting the dissertation result was due to circumstances beyond her control, and therefore, her candidature should not have been rejected.

The Court noted that the advertisement had explicitly set a cut-off date for submission of documents by final-year students, which was before the date of the written examination. The petitioner was unable to comply because her university released the result of her dissertation after this cut-off date. However, the Court emphasized that the delay caused by the petitioner's university did not justify setting aside the entire cut-off date.

“In the facts of the present case, no challenge is raised against the cut-off date. Rather, the only ground advanced is delay on part of the petitioner's university in declaring the petitioner's final year result. It goes without saying that for the said delay, the entire cut-off date sans challenge, cannot be set aside and/or relaxed, merely in order to accommodate certain participants, when the said cut-off date, being abundantly clear, is uniform for all applicants,” it said.

The Court further emphasized that determining a cut-off date fell squarely within the employer's discretion and could not be relaxed to accommodate specific participants. Consequently, the petition was dismissed.

Title: Rita Singh v State of Rajasthan & Ors.