The Allahabad High Court directed UPPSC to accept a candidate's delayed hard copy application. It said timely postal dispatch cannot justify exclusion when the candidate was diligent.
Prayagraj,Oct 13, 2026 21:52 IST
The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a candidate who applies online within the deadline and dispatches the hard copy of the application by post within the prescribed period cannot be kept out of the selection process only because the postal article reaches the recruiting authority after the cut-off date.
With this observation, Justice Manju Rani Chauhan directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission to accept the hard copy of the woman petitioner till October 16 and consider her candidature for recruitment in Uttar Pradesh's medical education department. The court noted that sending the application by post was a mode permitted under the advertisement.
Applications had been invited through an advertisement dated August 18 for posts under the Medical Education Department, to be filled only through interview. The last date for online application and fee payment was September 1, while the hard copy of the form along with the required documents had to reach the Commission by 5 pm on September 15 through registered post, speed post or by hand.
The petitioner applied online and paid the fee on August 31, and sent the hard copy by registered post on September 8. It reached the Commission's office in Allahabad on September 16, a day after the cut-off date, and was refused with an endorsement made on the envelope. The envelope was returned to the petitioner on September 21.
The postal authorities told the petitioner that offices in Delhi and New Delhi had remained closed from September 11 to September 13 because of the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit. A representation sent to the Commission on September 30 did not receive any response. During the hearing, counsel for the Commission said the hard copy could not be accepted as it had been received after the last date.
The court said, "The recruiting authority, having itself prescribed and sanctioned transmission through registered post/ speed post, cannot in the same breath disown the consequences of that very mode of transmission and visit an otherwise diligent candidate with the drastic civil consequence of exclusion from the selection process." It found that the tracking report showed timely dispatch and subsequent transit, and that nothing on record suggested any lack of diligence on the petitioner's part. The court recognised that when timely dispatch and absence of negligence by the candidate are established, delay in postal delivery beyond the candidate's control cannot by itself be a valid ground for exclusion.
In its October 8 judgment, the court held that the Commission had erred in returning the hard copy because of the marginal delay in postal delivery, and directed it to accept the petitioner's application till October 16 and consider her candidature accordingly.
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