JODHPUR, May 29 -- The Rajasthan High Court has quashed the selection of more than 1,200 candidates for Class-IV government posts, observing that appointing people who secured practically zero marks in a 200-mark examination was shocking and violated the Constitution. A single bench of Justice Anand Sharma passed the order on petitions filed by two candidates, Vinod Kumar and Anju, who had applied under reserved categories but were not selected because they secured negative marks after normalisation. The bench found that while the petitioners were rejected, the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board had selected several candidates who originally scored negative raw marks and, after normalisation, their marks were converted into positive numbers but still remained low. The bench noted that more than 1,200 selected candidates had original raw marks in the negative range. The cut-off marks declared for several reserved categories were almost zero. The Court said: "A person securing near zero or negative marks cannot reasonably be treated as suitable for public employment."The bench observed that public employment is not a matter of charity or distribution of largesse, and that every public post, howsoever small, carries public duties and responsibilities. "Even a Class-IV employee is required to discharge duties involving discipline, basic comprehension, execution of instructions and performance of official functions with minimum efficiency," the Court said. The bench also noted that the Board's own instructions dated May 31, 2017 stated that candidates securing zero or negative marks shall not be selected under any circumstances, yet this rule was ignored in the present recruitment. The bench quashed the select list for nine specific categories, including General-Ex-serviceman, SC-Widow, ST-Widow, Gen-EWS-Widow, OBC-Widow, MBC-Widow, SAH-General, SAH-Female and SAH-Widow. It directed the respondents to prepare fresh merit lists for these categories after prescribing reasonable minimum qualifying standards consistent with constitutional requirements....