candidates belonging to the EWS category were excluded from consideration. Learned Senior counsel has also submitted that it is not the case of the petitioner(s) that they applied for issuance of Income and Asset Certificates after the last date prescribed for submission of online applications. Rather, all the petitioners in the present bunch of petitions had applied for issuance of the requisite certificates well before the cut-off date, but the certificates were issued by the competent authority subsequently. He has further argued that the petitioners cannot be made to suffer on account of administrative delays attributable to the issuing authority. It is further submitted that there is no dispute regarding the eligibility of the petitioner(s), and the requisite certificates had been produced before the date fixed for document verification. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioners has also pointed out that the posts against which the petitioners had applied continued to remain vacant under the EWS category. In these circumstances, it is argued that the action of the respondent-Corporation in extending the benefit of consideration to candidates belonging to other reserved categories, while excluding similarly situated candidates falling under the EWS category, fails to satisfy the test of reasonable classification. It is contended that such differential treatment is arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of the guarantee of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
