HC cancels near-zero cutoff merit lists in Class-IV recruitments

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court Friday quashed the merit lists of all categories in the Class-IV Employee Recruitment-2024 where the cutoff marks were either zero or even below that, observing that “every govt recruitment must maintain a minimum standard of eligibility and merit”.

The bench of Justice Anand Sharma passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Vinod Kumar challenging the selection process conducted by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB). The court directed the board and the department of personnel (DoP) to fix minimum qualifying marks and issue fresh merit lists for the affected categories.

The recruitment drive is considered the biggest in Rajasthan so far, with nearly 24.75 lakh applications received for 53,749 Class-IV vacant posts. More than 21 lakh candidates appeared in the examination, making the verdict significant for thousands of aspirants and the entire recruitment process.

During the hearing, the court observed that even for Class-IV govt posts, a “basic standard” and minimum level of competence is essential.

The bench said that conducting recruitment without prescribing minimum qualifying marks and selecting candidates who scored nearly zero marks would violate constitutional principles governing fair public employment.

The petitioner’s counsel, advocate Harendra Neel, argued that his client applied under the Ex-Serviceman (OBC) category and secured negative marks in the examination. “The recruitment rules and advertisement did not prescribe any minimum qualifying marks. At the same time, candidates in several categories were selected with cutoffs as low as 0.0033 marks. Therefore, merely excluding candidates with negative marks while selecting candidates with almost zero marks was arbitrary and irrational,” he argued.

The RSSB and the DoP defended the process by arguing that the rules did not provide for minimum marks and, therefore, candidates scoring zero marks could legally be selected, while candidates with negative scores were treated as an extremely weak category.

The high court, however, rejected the argument, observing that recruitment agencies are still required to follow logical, fair and constitutional standards even in the absence of explicit rules.

The court cancelled merit lists in several categories, including Ex-Servicemen, widow categories, Saharia category and multiple disabled categories in both TSP and Non-TSP areas where cutoffs had fallen close to zero.

The judgment is expected to have a far-reaching impact on future govt recruitments in Rajasthan by making minimum qualifying standards mandatory.