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Gurmeet Pal Singh v. State of Punjab

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 517Decided 15 May 2018
Civil Appeal No. 4853 of 2018
Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul

Background

Several candidates who sat for a 2008 direct-recruitment examination to the Punjab Superior Judicial Service (for advocates) finished just outside the ten General-category seats on offer. They argued that five subsequent developments, a judge's elevation freeing up a seat, a wrongly-advertised Ex-Servicemen quota, absorption of Fast Track Court judges, an unfilled disability-category seat, and an understated cadre strength, should have expanded the number of General-category seats to accommodate them. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had already rejected their writ petitions in 2013.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court rejected each of the five grounds in turn. It held that a vacancy arising after an advertisement cannot retroactively expand that advertisement's seats; that the wrongly-created Ex-Servicemen seat was lawfully redirected to absorb Fast Track Court judges under an earlier Supreme Court scheme rather than to General-category candidates; that disability-category vacancies can lawfully be carried forward rather than reallocated; and that candidates who sit an exam without challenging the underlying advertisement cannot later contest it merely because they fell short of the cut-off. The Court also noted the appellants had unsuccessfully tried their luck in later recruitment rounds over the following decade. All appeals were dismissed, with each side bearing its own costs.

Lesson Learnt

If you believe a recruitment advertisement or quota is flawed, you must challenge it before taking the exam and seeing the result: courts will not let you "wait and see" and then object only after you fail to make the cut.

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

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