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Aneesh Kumar V.S. & Ors. v. State of Kerala & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 365Decided 24 Apr 2020
Civil Appeal No. 2368 of 2020
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellants were candidates empanelled in a 2013 ranked list ("RL-I") published by the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) for the post of Sub-Inspector of Police (Trainee), but were never finally selected before the list lapsed. They sought to be appointed against 93 "Non-Joining Duty" (NJD) vacancies that arose later and were reported to the KPSC in 2016, arguing the State should have continued to draw candidates from their list rather than a newer one. The State declined, maintaining that RL-I had already expired (per the applicable rules, a list ceases to exist after a fixed period/number of advices) before these later vacancies were even reported, and that filling them required using the subsequently published ranked lists instead.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals, upholding the Full Bench of the Kerala High Court's finding that RL-I had, in law, ceased to exist by 1 June 2016, before the NJD vacancies in question were reported to the KPSC, so no candidate could claim appointment against those vacancies based on that list. The Court traced the long procedural history, including earlier litigation over bifurcating the list into main and supplementary lists and an interim "status quo" order, and found that none of this had kept RL-I legally alive past its due expiry, nor had the State been directed at any point to specifically hold vacancies open for these appellants. It rejected the appellants' reliance on equitable maxims (that no one should suffer due to an act of the court, and that the law does not compel the impossible), holding these had no application since there was no court-caused prejudice: the list had simply run its lawful course.

Lesson Learnt

A candidate's claim to a government job based on a ranked selection list is only as good as the list's own legal lifespan, once a recruitment list validly expires under the governing rules, vacancies reported afterward must be filled from the next list, even if some empanelled candidates from the earlier list were never ultimately appointed.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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