Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:86612-DB Court No. - 29 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 7289 of 2025 Petitioner :- Rohit Kumar And 6 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Alok Mishra,Binod Kumar Mishra Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J. Hon'ble Praveen Kumar Giri,J. 1. Petitioners had applied for appointment to the post of Constable in the U.P. Police pursuant to the recruitment exercise initiated on 23.12.2023. The recruitment is regulated by the U.P. Police Constable and Head Constable Service Rules, 2015. These rules were amended in the year 2017. Rule 15, as amended in 2017, is reproduced hereinafter: "Procedure for Direct Recruitment to the post of Constable Civil Police:- 15-(1) Application Form and Call Letter:- (i) The Head of the Department, in consultation with the Board, shall fix an application fee for any recruitment. (ii) A candidate shall fill only one Application Form. The Board will accept only online applications. The application of candidates, who fill more than one form, may be rejected by the Board. (iii) Detailed procedure of filling the Application Form and issuance of call letter shall be determined by the Board and will be displayed on its own website. (iv) The Government may change the number of vacancies for any recruitment at any time before the examination and may also cancel any recruitment at any time or stage of recruitment without assigning any reason therefore. (2) Written Examination- Candidates, whose applications are found correct, shall be required to appear in written examination. In the written objective, type question paper. The written examination will be of 300 marks and it shall have questions from General Knowledge, General Hindi, Numerical and Mental Ability, Mental Aptitude/I.Q. and Reasoning Ability. Candidates will be awarded negative marks for wrong answers in the written examination. The detailed syllabus for the examination will be decided by the Board and will be displayed on its own website. The Board will decide at its own level to conduct written examination on one date in a single shift or in more than one shift or on more than one date in different shifts with different question papers or through computer based written examination system. Note:- (1) Detailed procedure for written examination shall be determined by the Board and will be displayed on its own website. (2) If the Board decides to conduct the written examination in more than one shift or on more than one date in different shifts with different question papers, then the Board may, if necessary, decide the process of normalization of marks obtained by candidates appearing in such examinations at its level and will publish it in its advertisement. (3) Scrutiny of Documents and Physical Standard Test- (A) Candidates found successful in written examination under sub-rule (2) shall be required to appear in Scrutiny of Documents and Physical Standard Test. Keeping in view the total number of vacancies, the Board shall decide at its own level, the number of candidates on the basis of merit to be called for this test. Physical Standards for candidates are as follows:- (I) Minimum Physical Standards for male candidates are as follows:- (1) Height:- (aa) for General/Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes male candidates minimum height should be 168 centimetre. (bb) for Scheduled Tribes female candidates minimum height should be 160 centimetre. (ii) Chest:- For the candidates, belonging to General/Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes minimum chest measurement should be 79 centimetres without expansion and at least 84 centimetres with expansion and for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Tribes 77 centimetres without expansion and not less than 82 centimetres on expansion. Note: Minimum 5 centimetre chest expansion is essential. (II) Minimum Physical Standards for female candidates are as follows:- (1) Height:- (aa) for General/Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes female candidates minimum height should be 152 centimetre. (bb) for Scheduled Tribes female candidates minimum height should be 147centimetre. (ii) Weight:- Minimum 40 Kg. for female candidates. (B) For conducting scrutiny of documents and Physical Standard Test, a committee will be constituted by. the Board in which a Deputy Collector nominated by the District Magistrate will be the Chairman and the Deputy Superintendent of Police nominated by the District Superintendent of Police will. be the member. The other members of the committee shall be nominated by the District Magistrate or the Superintendent of Police if requested by the Board. (C) Detailed procedure for this examination shall be determined by the Board and will be displayed on its own website. (D) If any candidate is not satisfied with his Physical Standard Test, he/she may file an objection on the same day after the test. For clearing all such objections; the Board shall nominate one Additional Superintendent of Police at every place and Physical Standard Test of all such candidates will be conducted again by the Committee in the presence of the said nominated Additional Superintendent of Police. All those candidates who are again found unsuccessful in the Physical Standard. Test, will be declared unfit for recruitment and no further appeal will be entertained in this regard. (4) Physical Efficiency Test- (a). Candidates found successful in Scrutiny of Documents and Physical Standard Test will be required to appear in Physical Efficiency Test, which will be of qualifying nature. (b) For qualifying in this physical efficiency test it shall be necessary for male candidates to complete 4.8 km. run in 25 minutes and for female candidates to complete 2.4 km. run in 14 minutes. Those candidates who do not complete the run within prescribed time shall not be eligible for recruitment. (c) Detailed procedure for Physical Efficiency Test shall be determined by Board and will be displayed on its own website. For conducting this test a committee will be constituted by the Board in which a Deputy Collector nominated by the District Magistrate will be the Chairman and the Deputy Superintendent of Police nominated by the District Superintendent of Police will be a member. The other members of the committee shall be nominated by the District Magistrate or the Superintendent of Police if required by the board. (5) Selection and Final Merit List:- (a) From amongst the candidates found successful in Physical Efficiency Test, the Board shall prepare a select list of each category of candidates, as per order of marks obtained by each candidate in written examination, keeping in view the reservation policy and send it to the Head of the Department and also publish it on the Board's website. (b) No waiting list shall be prepared by the Board. (c) The Head of the Department shall, after approval, send it to the Appointing Authority for issuing appointment letters subject to the Medical Examination and Character Verification of the candidates. Note: If two or more than two candidates obtain equal marks then their seniority shall be decided by the procedure laid in following order:- (1) Such candidate will be given preference who possesses preferential qualification, if any (in the same order as stated in rule-9). Candidate having more than one preferential qualification shall get the benefit of only one preferential qualification. (2) Even then if two or more candidates have equal marks then candidate older in age shall be given preference. (3) If the aforementioned more than one candidates are equal, then preference to such candidate shall be determined according to the order. in English Alphabets of their names mentioned in High School Certificate. (6) Medical Examination- (a) The candidates whose names figure in the select list will be required to appear for Medical Examination by the Appointing authority. (b) The Appointing authority shall request the Chief Medical Officer of the concerned district to constitute a Medical Board consisting of panel of 3 doctors for conducting the medical examination in consultation with the Director General of Medical Health. The panel will conduct Medical: Examination as per "Police Recruitment Medical Examination Forms" as prescribed and codified by the Head of Department of police. (c) Any candidate not satisfied with his Medical Examination, may file an appeal before the Divisional Medical Board on the day of examination itself. Any appeal with regard to Medical Examination will not be considered if it is filed on any date after the date of his Medical Examination and declaration of its result thereof. (d) The Medical Board constituted for appeal shall have an expert relating to Medical deficiency of the applicant. (e) The decision of the Divisional Medical Board on the appeal filed by the candidate about his/her medical examination shall be final and binding on the candidate and no appeal against it will be entertained. (f) The detailed instructions for conducting Medical Examination will be issued by the Director General of Police. (g) The candidates found unsuccessful in Medical Examination shall be declared unfit by the Appointing authority and such vacancies shall be carried forward for next selection." 2. The petitioners had applied for the appointment and qualified in the written examination, after which they were called for scrutiny of documents and the Physical Standard Test. Petitioners also cleared this stage. The next stage in recruitment process was the Physical Efficiency Test, which the petitioners also qualified. In terms of Rule 15 (5) of the Rules, selection and final merit list are drawn after the conclusion of Stage 4. It is at this stage that petitioners were not selected on account of their low merit. 3. The petitioners contend that by virtue of Rule 15(5)(b) of the Service Rules, no waiting list is to be drawn by the Board. It is pointed out that the next stage for the issuance of appointment is the medical examination of the candidates selected from the final merit list. It is submitted that a large number of candidates usually apply in such recruitment exercises and a fairly good number of candidates do not qualify the medical examination required under the Rules. It is, therefore, urged that those left over vacancies are carried over to the next recruitment, as a result of which a good number of candidates who otherwise could be considered for appointment are left out. 4. In paragraph 21 of the writ petition, it is stated that in the previous recruitment drives, 3,000 to 4,000 candidates were declared medically unfit and those vacancies were then carried forward to the next recruitment. The petitioners, therefore, have challenged the statutory rules of the recruitment on the ground that the holding of medical examination after the publication of select list should be declared invalid and ultra vires Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. A further prayer is made to command the respondents to redraw a fresh select list by including a larger number of people in the final select list against the available posts so that vacancies caused due to candidates being declared medically unfit are then filled from such selected candidates. It is also urged that mere selection, otherwise does not carry any right and, therefore, no prejudice would be caused to the respondents. 5. Shri S.C. Upadhyay, learned Standing Counsel for the State, on the other hand, opposes the writ petition on the grounds that there would be no presumption that a large number of candidates would be declared medically unfit so as to include large number of persons against the available posts in the select list. It is also urged that the petitioners otherwise have participated in the recruitment with their open eyes without raising any challenge to the rules or the selection proceedings and at this late stage, they cannot be permitted to challenge the recruitment rules, which otherwise are not shown to be contrary to any statutory provision or the Constitution of India. 6. We have heard Shri Alok Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioners and Shri S.C. Upadhyay, learned Standing Counsel for the State and have examined the materials on record. 7. The scheme of recruitment for the post of Constable is outlined in the Rules of 2015. The amended rules clearly provide for different stages of selection. Once a candidate clears the written examinations; scrutiny of documents and Physical Standard Test; and the Physical Efficiency Test, then the final select list is prepared and published in terms of Rule 15(5) of the Rules. 8. By virtue of sub-rule (b) of Rule 15(5), no waiting list is required to be prepared by the Board. Ordinarily, the list of selected candidates would be equal to the number of vacancies available for recruitment. It is otherwise a part of standard practice observed in various recruitments that a selected candidate is medically examined and his documents etc. are verified before he is offered appointment. It is quite possible that at such stage, some of the candidates may be declared medically unfit or their character verification etc., may not be found satisfactory. Just because certain selected candidates may not be ultimately issued appointment letters it cannot constitute any basis or ground for the candidates to be selected over and above the number of available vacancies. These are fortuitous circumstances and there will be no presumption that a large number of candidates would be declared medically unfit. At the stage of drawing the select list, it would otherwise not be known as to how many of such candidates would fail to clear the medical test. These are exigencies which cannot be predicted, nor the recruitment rules can be made subservient to such fortuitous circumstances. The select list would ordinarily consist of persons for whom vacancies are available. In the event a larger number of candidates are selected, it is also possible that all of them may qualify the medical test, in which case many of the selected individuals would be denied appointments. These are circumstances which cannot be known in advance when the recruitment exercise itself is undertaken. 9. The policy of recruitment is otherwise a matter to be determined by the employer in accordance with the rules. Mere fortuitous circumstances, which may or may not happen, cannot be allowed to be made the basis for successfully assailing the Recruitment Rules, which otherwise do not suffer from any illegality. We also find that the petitioners have participated in the recruitment exercise with their open eyes and having failed to secure selection on account of their low merit, cannot question the select list or the rules in that regard. 10. The writ petition fails and is dismissed. Order Date :- 22.5.2025 K.Tiwari Digitally signed by :- KRISHNA KANT TIWARI High Court of Judicature at Allahabad