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J. Ashoka v. University of Agricultural Sciences & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 12182 of 2016)Decided 15 Dec 2016
Civil Appeal No. 12182 of 2016
Chief Justice T.S. Thakur · Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel

Background

The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore advertised three Assistant Professor posts in Sericulture in 1995; the appellant, ranked first by the Selection Committee, was nonetheless passed over when the University's Board of Regents instead appointed a candidate ranked lower (Respondent No. 3), who held an additional Ph.D. qualification and longer continuous service. After years of litigation, including an earlier round where the High Court set aside the first such appointment and sent the matter back, leading the Board to re-select the same lower-ranked candidate in 1999 with recorded reasons, the appellant's challenge to this second selection was dismissed by a single judge and then by a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court, bringing the matter to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that while the Board of Regents is not bound to mechanically follow the Selection Committee's merit order, it can prefer a lower-ranked candidate only by recording genuine reasons: a bare conclusion that the other candidate was "more suitable" is not enough, since reasons are what link the material considered to the decision reached and make it reviewable as non-arbitrary under Articles 14 and 16(1). On the facts, the Court found the Board had, on reconsideration in 1999, recorded cogent and relevant reasons (the respondent's Ph.D. qualification in the same subject, her length of regular service as Assistant Professor, and humanitarian considerations including hardship from discontinuation), none of which amounted to irrelevant or extraneous material. Accordingly, the Court upheld the selection as a valid, non-arbitrary exercise of the Board's statutory discretion and dismissed the appeal, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A selecting authority can lawfully depart from a merit-list ranking prepared by an expert Selection Committee, but only if it records clear, relevant reasons for preferring a lower-ranked candidate: an unreasoned preference, even for a seemingly well-qualified candidate, risks being struck down as arbitrary.

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

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