Women vs Men: Who Gets 461 Vacant Punjab Fireman Posts? HC Puts Recruitment Relaxation on Hold
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 14
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has restrained the Punjab Government from taking any further action under its August 12 order relaxing physical and physical-fitness standards for women candidates in the recruitment of Firemen, throwing the fate of hundreds of vacancies into fresh uncertainty.
The court on Monday, September 14, adjourned the matter to November 12, 2026 and directed that any decision taken by the Punjab Council of Ministers be placed before the court on the next date of hearing.
The court also made it clear that no further action pursuant to the impugned government order shall be taken without its leave.
The petition has been filed by candidates seeking consideration for appointment to vacant Fireman posts. The petition challenges the government’s move to alter the physical standards after the recruitment process had already been initiated. The petitioners have specifically sought directions concerning the remaining vacant Fireman posts and questioned the changes made after the original recruitment criteria.
Why are 461 Fireman posts at the centre of the dispute?
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The controversy goes back to an advertisement in January 2023, through which the Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board initiated recruitment for Firemen in Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.
According to the Punjab Government’s August 12, 2026 order, a total of 991 Fireman posts had been requisitioned, of which 461 posts were reserved for women.
As many as 1,875 women candidates appeared in the physical test, but none could qualify. Consequently, all 461 women-reserved posts remained vacant.
This led to a prolonged legal dispute over what should happen to these unfilled posts.
Earlier High Court ruling favoured filling vacant posts
In December 2025, Justice Harpreet Singh Brar directed the competent authority to fill the remaining vacant posts in accordance with the Punjab Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 2020.
The case concerned candidates seeking appointment against Fireman posts which had remained vacant because no women candidates had qualified the physical test.
The petitioners argued that Rule 5(3) of the 2020 Women Reservation Rules provided a mechanism for dealing with reserved vacancies that remained unfilled because eligible women candidates were unavailable. The High Court accepted the argument and directed the authorities to fill the remaining vacancies according to the applicable rules.
But the matter did not end there.
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Punjab Fireman Recruitment: Govt relaxed physical standards
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The dispute took another turn after the Division Bench considered the broader question concerning physical standards for women Fireman candidates.
In July 2026, the Division Bench recorded the State’s undertaking that it would take an appropriate decision in light of earlier observations of the court before implementing the direction concerning vacant women-reserved posts.
The Punjab Government subsequently issued its order dated August 12, 2026.
The order says the physical and physical-fitness standards prescribed for women candidates under the newer Punjab Fire and Emergency (Group-C) Service Rules, 2025 would apply to women candidates who had applied under the 2023 recruitment advertisement.
It also provides for a fresh physical measurement and physical fitness test for women candidates who had qualified the written examination.
Importantly, the government order says the educational qualification, age and other eligibility conditions of the original advertisement would remain unchanged and that the relaxation was confined to physical and physical-fitness standards.
It further states that the 461 posts reserved for women would not immediately be de-reserved or filled by candidates from other categories until the exercise under the relaxed standards was completed.
Why male candidates have challenged the move
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The latest petition represents the other side of the dispute.
The petitioners contend that they are eligible male candidates who should be considered for the vacancies according to merit and the applicable reservation rules.
Their central argument is that the rules of recruitment cannot be changed after the selection process has progressed, particularly to accommodate candidates who could not meet the physical requirements applicable when the advertisement was issued.
The petition specifically seeks, among other things, quashing of the August 12 government order and directions for filling the vacant Fireman posts from eligible male candidates in accordance with merit and the applicable reservation framework.
The petitioners have also raised the argument that the recruitment criteria were changed after the process had already begun. Their plea says that the relaxation and subsequent fresh physical test amount to changing the terms of the selection process midway.
What the High Court has ordered now
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The court has not finally ruled on the validity of the government’s relaxation policy.
Instead, at this stage, it has prevented the State from proceeding further under the August 12 order without the court’s permission.
The matter has been adjourned to November 12, 2026. The court has also directed that any decision taken by the Council of Ministers be produced before it on the next date.
The significance is that the government’s proposed mechanism of giving women candidates another opportunity through relaxed physical standards cannot presently proceed as a matter of course.
A recruitment dispute that has lasted more than three years
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The Fireman recruitment began with an Advertisement in January 2023. The physical test subsequently resulted in no women candidates qualifying, leaving 461 women-reserved vacancies unfilled.
Since then, the dispute has travelled through multiple proceedings involving the question of women’s physical standards, the treatment of unfilled reserved vacancies and whether the State can subsequently relax the standards.
The December 2025 judgment in the Balkar Singh case had favoured filling the remaining vacancies in accordance with the 2020 reservation rules.
The July 2026 proceedings in the Pushpa Rani case, however, gave the Punjab Government time to take an appropriate decision following earlier Division Bench observations.
The State’s August 12 order then provided for relaxed physical standards and a fresh physical test for eligible women candidates.
The latest High Court proceedings have now put that process on hold, at least until the court considers the matter further.
What happens next?
Punjab Fireman Recruitment: The immediate question is whether the Punjab Council of Ministers takes any decision on the issue before the next hearing and, if so, what position it takes.
The High Court is scheduled to hear the matter again in November 2026.
For the candidates who have been waiting since the 2023 recruitment, the case has therefore entered another important phase: whether the 461 women-reserved vacancies should be filled after a fresh physical test under relaxed standards, or whether the vacant posts should instead be dealt with under the existing reservation framework and merit.
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