Observing that a cut-off date for acquiring essential qualifications is a well-established legal principle necessary to ensure certainty, uniformity and fairness in recruitment, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed a petition challenging a PSPCL recruitment condition requiring candidates to possess the prescribed qualification by the last date of submission of online applications.The Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed a petition challenging a PSPCL recruitment condition requiring candidates to possess the prescribed qualification by the last date of submission of online applications.Justice Harpreet Singh Brar held that the condition could not be termed arbitrary, unreasonable or violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The court said recruitment processes would become open-ended and disorderly if eligibility timelines were not clearly demarcated and that the terms of an advertisement were binding equally on all candidates.The petition was filed by Manpreet Kaur, who challenged Note (iii) of the eligibility criteria in PSPCL advertisement for recruitment to 622 posts of junior engineer (Electrical). She sought quashing of the condition fixing the last date of online applications as the cut-off date for acquiring the requisite qualification, and requested permission to obtain the qualification by the stage of document verification or any subsequent stage of the selection process.The petitioner also sought directions to allow her participation in the recruitment process, protection against rejection of her candidature and a decision on her representation seeking clarification regarding the eligibility of candidates whose final results were awaited.PSPCL had issued the recruitment advertisement in April 2026, fixing May 10, 2026, as the last date for submission of online applications. According to the petitioner, candidates whose results were awaited were permitted to apply, provided they acquired the prescribed qualification by the application deadline.The petitioner submitted that she was pursuing a diploma in electrical engineering, and had completed all semesters and mandatory industrial training. However, she could not appear in one examination, which was scheduled for June 2026, and her final result was expected in July or August 2026. She contended that despite seeking clarification from PSPCL before the deadline, no response was received.Arguing before the court, her counsel submitted that insisting on possession of the qualification by the application deadline was arbitrary and defeated the objective of recruitment by excluding candidates who would obtain the qualification before completion of the selection process.PSPCL opposed the plea, maintaining that the eligibility conditions prescribed in the advertisement were binding on all candidates and that anyone failing to meet the criteria by the stipulated cut-off date was ineligible for consideration.Accepting this stand, the high court noted that the petitioner admittedly did not possess the requisite qualification by May 10. Relying on settled Supreme Court precedents, the court held that eligibility must be assessed with reference to the cut-off date specified in the advertisement and that such conditions cannot be relaxed midway through the recruitment process to benefit an individual candidate. Finding no merit in the petition, the court dismissed the writ petition on May 27.