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High Court of Kerala v. Reshma A. and Ors. Etc.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 15Decided 11 Jan 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 3974-3975 of 2020
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

The Kerala High Court had notified 37 "probable" vacancies for Munsiff-Magistrate recruitment in 2019, and after examinations and interviews a merit list was approved by the Governor in May 2020, under which 32 candidates were appointed. Wait-listed candidates then went to the Kerala High Court (on its judicial side) arguing that under a 2019 amendment to Kerala Judicial Service Rule 7(2), any vacancies arising within one year of the merit list's approval, including fresh vacancies meant for the next (2020) recruitment cycle, should also be filled from the same 2019 list. Both the Single Judge and Division Bench of the Kerala High Court agreed with the candidates, prompting the High Court (as the recruiting authority) to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Rule 7(2) must be read harmoniously with its own earlier directions in Malik Mazhar Sultan (3) and with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, which require that appointments not exceed the number of vacancies actually notified for a given recruitment year. It held that "probable number of vacancies" only covers adjustments for things like deaths, resignations or promotions within that same recruitment cycle: it cannot be stretched to let a later year's fresh vacancies be filled from an earlier year's select list, as that would unfairly deny opportunity to candidates who become eligible in the later year. The Court also rejected the High Court's own suggested "piecemeal training with stipend" workaround as impractical and legally unsound, and set aside the Division Bench's judgment, dismissing the original writ petitions.

Lesson Learnt

In public recruitment, a select list can only be used to fill the vacancies actually notified for that recruitment cycle: later vacancies belong to the next cycle's candidates, and reading a "one-year validity" rule to bypass this would violate the constitutional guarantee of equal opportunity in public employment.

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

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