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Lokendra Kumar Tiwari v. Union of India and Others

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 487Decided 13 May 2026
C.A. No.-005307-005307 - 2024
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

An educational institute advertised regular posts of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, with no mention of any contractual hiring. The appellant applied for Assistant Professor, was found suitable and interviewed alongside candidates who were ultimately given regular appointments, but the Selection Committee recommended him for only a one-year contract post while thirteen other candidates from the very same process got regular appointments, without any recorded reason for the difference. After earlier rounds of litigation and a Supreme Court-ordered reconsideration, the institute again reiterated only a contractual offer to him.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that since the recruitment process was advertised and conducted as a single, uniform process for a regular vacancy, singling out the appellant for a contractual appointment without any stated justification was arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional. The Court clarified it was not examining the legality of the selection process itself or the appointments of others (who were not before it), but only whether denying the appellant a regular post, after he cleared the same selection, could be justified; it found no such justification on record. Noting vacant Assistant Professor posts were still available, the Court directed the institute to issue the appellant a regular appointment within four weeks, placing him last in seniority among those appointed under the 2013 selection, while moulding relief to give him continuity of service without back-dated financial benefits.

Lesson Learnt

An employer cannot single out one candidate for a lesser (contractual) appointment out of a batch selected through the same uniform process for regular posts without recording clear, justifiable reasons: differential treatment without reasons is arbitrary and can be struck down even years later.

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

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