RSSB can’t retrospectively debar candidates to deny already-cleared PTI recruitment: Rajasthan High Court

New Delhi, India Jul 10, 2026 ALN: Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court has quashed an order permanently debarring nine Physical Training Instructor candidates from Rajasthan Staff Selection Board examinations, holding that a debarment order traceable to a 2018 recruitment dispute could not be given retrospective effect to strip them of appointment after they had already cleared the 2022 recruitment process on the strength of fresh degrees.

Justice Kuldeep Mathur, allowing a batch of connected writ petitions with S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 11414/2025 as the lead case, observed that the power to debar a candidate from future examinations cannot be exercised to take away the accrued rights of selected candidates who have already found a place in a provisional merit list.

The Court observed:

“This Court fails to understand as to how an order debarring the petitioners from appearing in all future competitive examinations conducted by the RSSB can be given retrospective effect. The power vested in the RSSB and the Director, Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Bikaner to debar a candidate from appearing in any competitive examination permanently or for a specified period, as contemplated in the relevant rules and regulations, cannot be exercised to take away the accrued rights of selected candidates who have found a place in the provisional merit list.”

The lead petitioner, Babul Kalal, along with the other petitioners, had approached the High Court challenging an order dated Mar 28, 2025 by which their candidature for the post of Physical Training Instructor, Grade-III was rejected, seeking a direction to the State to appoint them against the post pursuant to the 2022 recruitment, along with monetary and consequential benefits.

The petitioners had first appeared in a selection process for Physical Training Instructor, Grade-III conducted by the RSSB in 2018, in which they were declared successful. However, at the stage of document verification, their B.P.Ed. degrees were not found to be genuine, and the Director, Secondary Education, Bikaner, via communication dated Jul 10, 2020, informed the RSSB that the petitioners were ineligible for appointment and that legal or departmental proceedings ought to be initiated against them. No such proceedings were, in fact, initiated, and no order debarring the petitioners, permanently or otherwise, followed at the time.

The petitioners subsequently obtained fresh B.P.Ed. degrees from universities recognised by the UGC and appeared again in the Physical Training Instructor Direct Recruitment Examination-2022 conducted by the RSSB, this time clearing the process and securing a place in the final merit list. The RSSB forwarded their names for appointment, subject to document and character verification. The Director, Secondary Education, Bikaner, however, via communication dated Dec 27, 2023, informed the RSSB that since the petitioners’ documents in the 2018 process had been found fake, their candidature could not be considered for the post advertised in 2022 — effectively debarring them from a process that had already concluded in their favour. The RSSB thereafter passed an order dated Apr 09, 2024, permanently debarring the petitioners from all future RSSB examinations.

Counsel for the petitioners submitted that denying them appointment in 2022 despite their possessing the requisite eligibility and merit was illegal and arbitrary, particularly since there was no specific allegation of the petitioners using unfair means or forged documents in the 2022 process itself, and no order of permanent debarment existed at the time they participated in and cleared that recruitment. It was argued that the action violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, as well as Rule 20 of the Rajasthan Educational (State and Subordinate) Service Rules, 2021 and the Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board Regulations for Prevention of Use of Unfair Means, 2016, both of which require an opportunity of hearing before a candidate is debarred for life.

Counsel for the respondents countered that candidates found to have used forged or fabricated documents to secure employment could not claim equity before the Court, and that the RSSB was vested with sufficient power under the Rules to permanently debar such candidates in order to preserve the sanctity of competitive examinations in which lakhs of candidates appear every year. It was also urged that the petitioners had not independently challenged the debarment order dated Apr 09, 2024.

Examining Rule 20 of the 2021 Service Rules and Clause 7 of the 2016 Regulations, the Court noted that no penalty of debarment can be imposed on a candidate without giving an opportunity of hearing or representation, and that the order must be signed and issued under the seal of the Secretary of the Board. The Court found that the Apr 09, 2024 debarment order was neither communicated to the petitioners individually nor was any hearing afforded to them, and that it was passed only after the 2022 recruitment process — in which the petitioners had already been selected — stood concluded.

The Court held that while the submission of forged documents for public employment is a serious matter and authorities remain free to initiate criminal or departmental action, the existence of that power does not dispense with the requirement of following the prescribed procedure and the principles of natural justice. Since no order of permanent debarment existed between 2022 and 2024 when the petitioners cleared the recruitment on the strength of fresh, UGC-recognised qualifications, they could not, the Court said, be declared ineligible for that process retrospectively.

Allowing the batch of writ petitions, the Court declared the action of the respondents in permanently debarring the petitioners illegal and arbitrary, and directed the respondents to verify the petitioners’ educational documents afresh. Where the documents are found genuine, the petitioners are to be appointed to the post of Physical Training Instructor, Grade-III as per their merit in the respective categories, with the entire verification exercise to be completed within four months. The petitioners were held not entitled to back wages but were granted seniority from the date on which a junior candidate was appointed to the post. The stay applications and other pending applications were disposed of.

Title: Babul Kalal & Ors. v State Of Rajasthan & Ors.

Case No.: S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 11414/2025 (with connected S.B. Civil Writ Petitions No. 7338/2025, 7848/2025, 11349/2025, 11377/2025, 11420/2025, 11450/2025, 11488/2025, 11567/2025 and 14233/2025)

Citation: [2026:RJ-JD:29357]

Counsel for petitioner: Mr. Ripudaman Singh

Counsel for respondent: Mr. N.K. Mehta, GC and Mr. Manish Patel