EWS reservation requires possession of the prescribed financial-year certificate by the recruitment cut-off date.

The applicants were provisionally selected for appointment to the post of Vice Principal in the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, pursuant to UPSC Advertisement No. 10/2022, for which the closing date for applications and prescribed crucial date of eligibility was 16.06.2022.

They claimed reservation under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category and were issued offers of appointment dated 25.04.2024, subject inter alia to verification of their original certificates and continued eligibility under the Recruitment Rules.

During document verification, the applicants were found not to possess Income and Asset Certificates for the financial year 2022–2023 issued on or before the crucial date.

The Government of NCT of Delhi consequently cancelled their candidatures and withdrew their offers of appointment by the common impugned order dated 24.02.2025.

Whether the applicants could claim EWS reservation when their Income and Asset Certificates for the financial year 2022–2023 were issued after the prescribed crucial date of 16.06.2022?

Whether the respondents were justified in cancelling the applicants’ candidatures and withdrawing their offers of appointment on the ground that the applicants did not possess valid EWS certificates by the crucial date?

Whether the principles applicable to delayed submission of OBC-NCL certificates could be extended to Income and Asset Certificates required for EWS reservation?

The Tribunal applied the DoP&T Office Memorandum dated 31.01.2019 and the applicable departmental instructions, under which the crucial date for submission of an EWS Income and Asset Certificate is ordinarily the closing date for receipt of applications, unless a different date is specified in the advertisement.

Relying on Poonam Dwivedi v. State of U.P. & Ors., the Tribunal held that an Income and Asset Certificate for the specified financial year must be in the candidate’s possession in the prescribed form by the cut-off date; a certificate relating to a different financial year goes to the root of eligibility.

The Tribunal also relied on Divya v. Union of India, as referred to in Poonam Dwivedi, for the same proposition.

The decision in Ravi Kumar v. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, concerning delayed submission of an OBC-NCL certificate, was distinguished because the respondents in that case had extended the time for submission, whereas no such extension had been granted in the present cases.

The Tribunal found that, on the closing date of 16.06.2022, none of the applicants possessed the requisite Income and Asset Certificate for the financial year 2022–2023.

Although the applicants argued that the certificates merely established an existing economic status, the Tribunal treated possession of the prescribed certificate by the cut-off date as an eligibility requirement for claiming EWS reservation, consistent with Poonam Dwivedi and Divya.

The Tribunal rejected the analogy with OBC-NCL certificates in Ravi Kumar, emphasizing that the respondents had not granted any extended period for filing the EWS certificates.

Since the advertisement made 16.06.2022 the decisive eligibility date and the applicants did not satisfy the certificate requirement on that date, the subsequent issuance of certificates could not cure the deficiency.

It held that the applicants were not entitled to claim EWS reservation because they did not possess the prescribed Income and Asset Certificates for 2022–2023 on or before the crucial date of 16.06.2022.

The common order dated 24.02.2025 cancelling their candidatures and withdrawing their offers of appointment was upheld.

Consequently, OA Nos. 3586/2025, 3587/2025 and 3588/2025 were dismissed as devoid of merit; pending miscellaneous applications, if any, were disposed of, with no order as to costs.