The Rajasthan High Court has expressed sharp concern over a recruitment process where the cut-off score for certain reserved categories in Class IV government posts reportedly dipped to almost zero, calling the situation startling and demanding an explanation from the State government.
Hearing a petition in the case of Vinod Kumar S/o Pyarelal v The State Of Rajasthan, Justice Anand Sharma questioned how candidates scoring near-zero—or even negative—marks could be considered suitable for public employment.
According to details placed before the Court, a recent recruitment exercise for Class IV employees in a government department set the cut-off for some reserved categories at an astonishing 0.0033 marks.
The petitioner argued that his application was rejected because he scored negative marks, even though the recruitment rules did not prescribe any minimum qualifying score.
The Court observed that the State, as the appointing authority, must ensure that even entry-level public jobs maintain a basic standard of competence.
“A person who secures near zero or negative marks cannot reasonably be considered suitable,” the judge remarked, stressing that public employment cannot ignore fundamental merit thresholds.
The Bench also pointed out that the situation raises troubling questions. Either the examination was unnecessarily difficult for a basic post, or the recruitment process failed to maintain proper evaluation standards.
Equally concerning, the Court noted, was the absence of any convincing explanation from the authorities for not fixing minimum qualifying marks in the first place.
Seeking clarity, the Court has directed the State government to submit an affidavit from the department’s Principal Secretary explaining how such an unusually low cut-off was fixed and what corrective measures are planned to prevent similar situations.
The Bench made it clear that if the explanation is unsatisfactory, the Court may take the matter seriously and pass strict orders while drawing adverse conclusions about the process.
The matter is scheduled to be taken up again on March 9.
