Amol v. State of Maharashtra and Ors.
Background
The appellant had applied for the post of Krishi Sevak in the Department of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra. On verification of records, the Tribunal found that the appellant's original application had been made under the quota reserved for Ex-Servicemen, in which he had secured 46.25% marks, but that he had actually been offered appointment incorrectly under the 'Scheduled Castes' category. The appellant contended that his appointment was in fact under the Scheduled Castes category, under which the last successful candidate had secured 62.75% marks: a threshold he had not met.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that whether treated under the Ex-Servicemen category (on the basis of his actual application) or under the Scheduled Castes category (as the appellant himself argued), the appellant was not entitled to appointment on his own marks, since he fell well short of the cut-off for the category he claimed. The Court found no reason to interfere with the concurrent findings of the Tribunal and the High Court, both of which had reached the same conclusion after verifying the records, and treated the earlier appointment offer as a mistake of fact that record verification had rightly corrected. The appeal was accordingly dismissed, with no order as to costs.
Lesson Learnt
A government job offer extended by administrative error, such as being mistakenly slotted into the wrong reservation category, can be withdrawn once the mistake is caught through verification of records, and courts will not treat a mistaken offer as creating a vested right if the candidate did not actually meet the eligibility marks for the category under which he is, in fact, assessed.