Court rules candidates cannot challenge recruitment conditions after participating in the examination under the advertised terms.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed 21 petitions challenging the Punjab Public Service Commission’s (PPSC) policy of calling five candidates for interviews against each advertised vacancy, clearing the way for the ongoing Provincial Management Service (PMS) Ministerial Quota recruitment process.
In a detailed written judgment, Justice Malik Muhammad Owais Khalid ruled that candidates who participated in the examination after accepting the advertised terms and conditions could not later contest those conditions simply because the results were not in their favor.
The petitions challenged the PPSC advertisement issued on December 19, 2024, arguing that the five-candidates-per-seat interview policy was unlawful, violated constitutional rights, and had not been published in the Punjab Gazette. The petitioners also sought to stop the interview and psychological assessment process.
The Punjab government and the PPSC maintained that all recruitment criteria, including eligibility, syllabus, qualifying standards, and interview shortlisting, had been clearly outlined in the advertisement before the examination.
The court observed that merely passing the written examination does not create a legal right to be called for an interview. It further noted that 106 candidates were shortlisted in accordance with the ratio specified in the advertisement.
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