Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:128147 Court No. - 4 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 4502 of 2025 Petitioner :- Bharatvir Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Durvesh Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J. 1. Heard Sri Durvesh Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel. 2. By means of this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, petitioner has prayed for writ of Mandamus to command the respondent no.2 to consider the candidature of the petitioner for recruitment as Police Constable in the category of Ex-Servicemen, OBC as according to him, when he first appeared for the Document Verification/Physical Standard Test (DV/PST) on 29.01.2025, he could not produce the discharge certificate from the Armed Forces as the same was lost and for which he also got registered a First Information Report on 22.01.2025. 3. It is contended that petitioner was permitted to appear in the second document verification/DV/PST to be held on 27.02.2025, on which date he was not in possession of the discharge certificate which he had produced and yet his candidature has not been considered in the category of Ex-Servicemen. 4. Per contra, learned Standing Counsel has relied upon instructions obtained by him, as per which, since the petitioner could not produce discharge certificate in original (DV/PST), his candidature was not considered in the horizontal category rather was considered in OBC quota and finally he could not secure matching marks with the last cut off, of the selected candidate in the OBC category and hence he could find place in the select list. It is contended that selections have already stood finalized and the selection results have been published on 13.03.2025. However, on a pointed query being made, learned Standing Counsel could not explain as to why the petitioner was not called for DV/PST second time on 27.02.2025. 5. In the considered view of this Court, once the petitioner was possessed with a photocopy of the discharge certificate and produced the same at the time of first DV/PST stating clearly before the authority that the original was lost for which he had already got First Information Report registered on 22.01.2025, the petitioner's candidature could have considered provisionally subject to further submission of discharge certificate in original, however, instead of that, he was permitted to appear in second DV/PST on 27.02.2025 when he produced his discharge certificate second time after obtaining discharge certificate in original. 6. It is, thus, not a case where petitioner concealed any material fact or wrongly applied in horizontal category to seek horizontal reservation and hence, it would be too harsh to deny claim to the petitioner for selection and appointment in the applied Ex- Servicemen category. However, the Court is also cautious of the fact that final results have already been declared on 13.03.2025 and appointments of the selected candidates are in process. 7. In the circumstances, therefore, it would not be appropriate to disturb the merit list already prepared and declared. However, it is provided that if vacancies are available to the respondents, the candidature of the petitioner should be considered and he should be accommodated against the available vacancy, if otherwise, there is no legal impediment. 8. With the aforesaid observations and directions, this petition stands disposed of. Order Date :- 30.7.2025 S.A. Digitally signed by :- SALMAN AHMAD High Court of Judicature at Allahabad