12th May, 2026 Item no.M/L 200 Court No. 18 Pradip, A.R.(Ct.) In the High Court at Calcutta Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side Case No. WPA 8642 of 2026 In the matter of: Deepak Kumar …. Petitioner VS. Airports Authority of India & Ors. ….Respondents For the Petitioner: Mr. Gunjan Kumar Singh Mr. Vijay Verma Mr. N.P. Singh ….Advocates For the AAI: Mr. Ayan Poddar Ms. Anjali Shaw ….Advocates 1. Affidavit of service filed in Court today is taken on record. 2. Unserved copy of the writ petition is returned to the learned advocate for the petitioner by retaining the unserved envelope on record. 3. The petitioner participated in the recruitment process in response to a notice published by the Airports Authority of India being ADVT. No. ER/02/2024 under the EWS category. 4. As per the recruitment notice, candidates applying against the vacancies reserved for EWS category have to submit the EWS certificate (income and asset certificate) for the financial year 2023-24 in the prescribed format issued by the competent authority so as to prove that he belongs to the EWS category at the time of documents verification. Page 2 5. The petitioner failed to produce the EWS certificate in terms of the said advertisement at the time of documents verification and he submitted an undertaking that he will submit the required document on 6th February, 2026. 6. The undertaking specifically mentions that the last date of submission of the deficient documents should not be beyond 13th February, 2026. 7. As the petitioner was unable to produce the EWS certificate within the stipulated time period, his candidature has been cancelled. 8. The petitioner is aggrieved by the same. 9. It has been submitted that as the examination in question took place in the year 2025, the petitioner was unable to produce the certificate for the financial year 2023-24. 10. Prayer has been made to direct the respondents to accept the EWS certificate for the financial year 2024-24. 11. The submission of the petitioner is opposed by the learned advocate representing the respondents. 12. It has been submitted that the recruitment notice specified the financial year for which the EWS certificate is required to be submitted. There is not scope for granting any relaxation to the petitioner. 13. Learned advocate for the respondents relies on the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 10th April, 2026 in the matter of Poonam Dwivedi & Ors. Vs. State of U.P. & Ors. reported in 2026 SCC OnLine SC 577 wherein the Hon’ble Page 3 Supreme Court reiterated that when the certificate is sought in respect of a particular financial year, the certificate of a different financial year goes to the root of the eligibility of a candidate. 14. The Court held that the respondents were justified in rejecting the claim of the appellants based on the certificates which were not in terms of the recruitment notice. 15. Upon hearing the submissions made on behalf of the parties and on perusal of the materials on record, it is not in dispute that the petitioner failed to produce the reservation certificate in respect of the financial year 2023-24 as prescribed in the recruitment notice. 16. Relying upon a certificate of any other financial year will not validate the reservation claimed by the petitioner. As the recruitment notice contained the condition of filing reservation certificate of a prescribed year, a job aspirant would be bound to follow the said condition. It is not proper for an aspirant in a public recruitment examination to seek for a writ of Mandamus commanding the respondents to accept documents contrary to those mentioned in the recruitment notice. It is not open for a job aspirant to direct the recruiting authority for prescribing conditions for holding the recruitment process. 17. If the prayer of the petitioner is accepted, then the same will amount to discrimination. There may be several other similarly placed candidates who may not possess the requisite document(s) as prescribed in the recruitment notice. If departure is made in respect of one candidate, then the other candidates will be deprived of such opportunity and may approach the Court for similar relaxation. Page 4 18. No case has been made out by the petitioner that the authority acted contrary to the conditions laid down in the recruitment notice. 19. In view of the above, the prayer of the petitioner seeking direction upon the respondents to accept the EWS certificate for a different financial year cannot be accepted. 20. No relief can be granted to the petitioner in the instant writ petition. The writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed. 21. Parties to act on the basis of the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court. 22. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance of all requisite formalities. (Amrita Sinha, J.)