Delhi High Court (Anil Kshetarpal & Amit Mahajan, JJ.) dismisses a batch of thirteen writ petitions under Articles 226/227 challenging the CAT, Principal Bench common order dated 08.09.2025, whereby Original Applications against CSIR's prescription of minimum qualifying ('threshold') marks for Paper-III (Stage-II) of the Combined Administrative Services Examination-2023 (CASE-2023 — 444 posts: 76 Section Officer, 368 Assistant Section Officer, per Advertisement No. E-1/RC/2023/1 dated 08.12.2023) were dismissed. Held: (i) the Recruitment-advertisement is the charter of selection; Clause 5-A ('Scheme of Examination') expressly provided that minimum threshold marks 'wherever prescribed/required' would/shall be decided by the Competent Authority and that the process was 'suggestive only', reserving CSIR's discretion — hence the prescription was not an impermissible mid-way alteration of the rules of the game nor an ex post facto criterion; (ii) following the Five Judge Bench ruling in Tej Prakash Pathak v. Rajasthan High Court, 2024 INSC 847, pre-stage benchmarks notified before the relevant stage are permissible — the threshold was notified on 28.06.2024, before Paper-III held on 07.07.2024, uninfluenced by evaluation or outcome; (iii) Salam Samarjeet Singh v. High Court of Manipur, (2024) 14 SCC 179, distinguished — there viva voce criteria were altered after the written test on the eve of the viva voce, whereas here the power was advertisement-contemplated and exercised pre-stage, with no proved prejudice since the shortlisting criterion applied uniformly; (iv) the threshold rested on functional requirements and no material showed it manifestly arbitrary, irrational or disproportionate, warranting deference to an expert body acting under an express enabling clause; (v) candidates who participated without protest and took their chance cannot challenge the process after failing, the criterion being uniform; (vi) the non-joinder objection regarding selected candidates was left unexamined as academic. Impugned order upheld; petitions and pending applications dismissed/closed.
