Exceptional circumstances causing delayed document verification cannot grounds for automatic forfeiture of selection if vacancies exist.

The applicant, a Kashmiri migrant, applied for the post of Junior Statistical Assistant under the Prime Minister’s Special Package (Notification No. 04/2017)

He was selected and placed at Serial No. 9 in the Open Merit list

A notification dated 05.09.2019 required selected candidates to submit original documents for verification within 21 days

The applicant failed to do so, claiming a total communication blockade (internet and mobile suspension) in J&K following the events of August 2019 prevented him from learning of the notification until March 2020

Upon learning of his selection, he submitted representations, but the respondents operated the waiting list and appointed a private respondent (Respondent No. 6) on 30.12.2020, citing the expiry of the selection list's validity and the applicant's failure to join

1. Whether the applicant's failure to submit documents within the stipulated time, due to extraordinary circumstances (communication blockade), justifies his exclusion from the appointment process.

2. Whether the respondents were justified in treating the applicant’s claim as extinguished due to the expiry of the selection list's validity and the intervention of third-party rights.

The court applied Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 regarding the adjudication of service matters

It considered the J&K Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment Rules, 2010, regarding the one-year validity period of selection lists

The Tribunal relied on the administrative law principle that while inclusion in a select list does not confer an indefeasible right to appointment, administrative action must satisfy the tests of fairness, reasonableness, and consideration of "exceptional circumstances" and "humane approaches"

The Tribunal observed that the core facts were undisputed: the applicant was successfully selected but failed to meet a procedural deadline

While the respondents argued that the selection list had expired on 11.05.2020 and the applicant lost his claim, the Tribunal found this approach "unduly rigid" given the "extraordinary situation" in J&K post-August 2019

The Tribunal reasoned that the communication blockade was a factor beyond the applicant's control, making the mechanical application of deadlines arbitrary

However, the Tribunal balanced this against the fact that third-party rights had intervened through the appointment of candidates from the waiting list. It determined that while a blanket appointment order was not feasible, a "moulded relief" based on equity was necessary to ensure the applicant was not left remediless

It directed the respondents to: (a) permit the applicant to submit his original documents within 8 weeks; (b) pass a reasoned order on his appointment against any available or future vacancy under the special package; and (c) do so without disturbing existing appointments or the private respondent. The Tribunal clarified this order does not confer an automatic right to appointment but a right to fair consideration