HC seeks Centre's response on PIL against Indian Navy recruitment process

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on the public interest litigation by Vikram Swami who claimed that the adoption of a short-listing criteria based on cut-off marks before a written examination is discriminatory.The court also sought the stand of Chief of Naval Staff, Indian Navy, and Directorate of Manpower Planning and Recruitment on the petition which would be heard next on January 11.

The Delhi High Court Monday sought the Centre's response on a petition challenging the Indian Navy's selection process for recruitment of Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR). A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on the public interest litigation by Vikram Swami who claimed that the adoption of a ''short-listing criteria'' based on cut-off marks before a written examination is discriminatory.

The court also sought the stand of Chief of Naval Staff, Indian Navy, and Directorate of Manpower Planning and Recruitment on the petition which would be heard next on January 11. The petitioner has said that the criteria for the upcoming recruitment drive, which is scheduled to take place in February, is contrary to the procedure laid down by Union Public Service Commission. The petition said that the Indian Navy has a specific clause in their advertisement on reserving the ''right for resorting to shortlisting criteria based on the percentage of marks scored in 10+2 and that the qualifying cut-off percentage of a particular state may be increased if more number of applications with higher percentage is received''. Such a procedure, the Petitioner submitted, is irrational, arbitrary, and illegal. ''The Indian Navy prefers to secretively determine the cut-off marks way before the initiation of the selection process which in turn results in rejection of candidature of many motivated candidates'', the petition said. ''As it may, such arbitrary action of the Indian Navy has resulted in absurd consequences. Meaning thereby, a candidate having lower percentage in his 12th class but having fulfilled the eligibility criteria may not be allowed to sit/participate in the PBOR exam conducted by the Navy but on the other hand, the same candidate will not just be called by the UPSC for NDA examination but will also hold a probable chance of cracking and being selected in the said examination,'' the petition said.

It emphasized that even the Indian Army calls ''every eligible candidate to take part in the selection process and thereby does not bar any prospective candidate with their pre-determined cut off''. By evolving short-listing criteria even before the written examination, the authorities are taking away the chances of eligible citizens to even participate in the selection process, the petitioner said.

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