The Delhi high court has rebuked the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for cancelling a candidate’s candidature and barring him from examinations without giving him an opportunity to defend himself, observing that such a ban at the cusp of a career is “almost akin to civil death”.
In its order, the court, however, dismissed SSC’s petition, saying that the Supervisor cannot be treated as gospel. “At the very least, the respondent was required to be visited with a show cause notice, inviting his comments on the report and afforded an opportunity of being heard before an action for cancellation of candidature was taken. It also criticised the SSC for filing the petition. “This is, to say the least, is an extremely unhappy state of affairs. We are completely at a loss as to how the SSC can claim to be aggrieved by such an order.
The verdict was delivered while hearing a SSC petition challenging a January 7 order of the tribunal, which had directed the commission to comply with the principles of natural justice before cancelling a candidate’s candidature and imposing a three-year bar on his appearing in any examination conducted by the SSC.
In its petition before the high court, SSC’s lawyer said that the decision was taken on the basis of the report provided by the Supervisor, who was invigilating the examination. The SSC did not deem it appropriate to extend the courtesy of granting such an opportunity to the respondent,” it said. Indeed, had the SSC complied with the order, and issued a show cause notice to the respondent, this litigation itself could have been avoided,” the court said.
