Prayagraj: Holding that an applicant cannot be penalised for delays attributable to the postal system, the Allahabad high court has ruled that a candidate who applied online and dispatched the hard copy of the application within the prescribed period cannot be excluded from the selection process merely because it reached the recruiting authority after the cut-off date.In this backdrop, Justice Manju Rani Chauhan directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to accept the hard copy submitted by the petitioner by Oct 16 and consider her candidature for recruitment in the medical education department of UP.“The recruiting authority, having itself prescribed and sanctioned transmission through registered post/speed post cannot, in the same breath, disown the consequences of that very mode of transmission and visit an otherwise diligent candidate with the drastic civil consequence of exclusion from the selection process,” the court observed.Through an advertisement dated Aug 18, applications were invited for posts under the medical education department to be filled solely through interviews. The online application and fee were to be submitted by Sept 1, while the hard copy of the application along with requisite documents had to reach the commission by 5 pm on Sept 15, through registered post, speed post or by hand.The petitioner applied online and paid the fee on Aug 31, and sent the hard copy by registered post on Sept 8. It reached the commission’s office in Prayagraj on Sept 16, 2026, a day after the cut-off date, and was refused with an endorsement to that effect on the envelope, which was returned to the petitioner on Sept 21.The postal authorities informed the petitioner that offices in Delhi/New Delhi had remained closed from Sept 11-13, on account of the 18th Brics Leaders’ Summit. A representation submitted to the commission on Sept 30 drew no response.During the hearing, counsel for the Commission submitted that the hard copy, having been received after the prescribed last date, could not be accepted.The court found that the tracking report established timely dispatch and subsequent transit, and that the petitioner had discharged her obligation within time. Nothing on record suggested any lack of diligence on her part.The court relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Ashutosh Agnihotri v. HC of Madhya Pradesh and another, where an application sent by speed post within time reached the HC a day after the last date and the rejection based on that delay was set aside, with the candidate being held blameless.“The court thus recognised that, where timely dispatch and absence of negligence on the part of the candidate are established, a subsequent delay in postal delivery, being beyond the candidate’s control, cannot by itself constitute a valid ground for exclusion from the selection process.”Accordingly, in its judgment dated Oct 8, the court held that the Commission had erred in returning the hard copy on account of the marginal delay in its postal delivery.