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HAV (OFC) Rwmwi Borgoyary & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1337Decided 6 Dec 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 8986-8988 of 2019
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The appellants were Havildars (non-commissioned soldiers) in the Army Air Defence's "Operation Fire Control" technical trade who applied for commissioning as Technical Equipment Officers (TEO) when vacancies were notified in 2016. After being allowed to go through the selection process, they were later informed they were ineligible for the TEO category because they lacked a specific qualification, Technical Instructor Fire Control (AD & FD), that 2007 Army instructions required, as opposed to the Operation Fire Control trade they actually held. Their representations were rejected, and the Armed Forces Tribunal dismissed their challenge to this, after which they appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the Tribunal's ruling and dismissed the appeals. It held that the 2007 Adjutant General's instructions prescribing TEO eligibility criteria were a valid addition to, not a contradiction of, the earlier 1974 Army Orders, and that having participated in the 2007-regime selection without objection, the appellants could not later challenge those very instructions. The Court also held that two other personnel having been wrongly appointed as TEOs despite similar ineligibility did not entitle the appellants to the same benefit, reaffirming that there is no concept of "negative equality" under Article 14: an illegal benefit given to one person cannot be a ground to extend the same illegality to others.

Lesson Learnt

A person cannot claim a right to a benefit or appointment merely because someone else was wrongly given it by mistake; Article 14's equality guarantee does not extend to "equal wrong treatment," and employees who participate in a selection process under published eligibility rules generally cannot later challenge those same rules after an adverse result.

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

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