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Nawal Kishor Mishra & Ors. v. High Court of Judicature at Allahabad & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 1956-1957 of 2015)Decided 17 Feb 2015
Civil Appeal Nos. 1956-1957 of 2015
Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

Several unsuccessful direct-recruit candidates challenged the Allahabad High Court's decision to fill unfilled reserved-category vacancies for Direct Recruit District Judges (Higher Judicial Service) in 2009 not through further direct recruitment, but by promoting in-service judicial officers ("Nyayik Sewa" members) instead. The appellants argued that under Rule 8(2) of the relevant High Court recruitment rules, the High Court should have kept trying to fill those reserved vacancies from the direct-recruitment (general/outside) source before resorting to promotions.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had correctly applied Section 3(1) of the U.P. reservation law together with Rule 8(2): once a special recruitment drive failed to find enough reserved-category direct-recruit candidates, the High Court was entitled to fill those vacancies by promoting in-service candidates and to carry forward the shortfall to future recruitment years under the Rule 8(2) proviso, rather than diluting the reservation by filling reserved posts with general-category direct recruits. The Court found no merit in any of the appellants' contentions, declined to disturb the promotions already made, but directed the High Court to add the number of 2009 vacancies that went unfilled in the reserved direct-recruit category to future years' recruitment until they are fully accounted for. All the connected appeals were accordingly dismissed, subject to this limited prospective direction.

Lesson Learnt

Reservation rules in recruitment are not satisfied simply by leaving reserved posts vacant or filling them with general-category candidates: an employer/authority can validly fill a genuine shortfall through promotion of eligible reserved-category staff and carry the shortfall forward to future recruitment cycles, so long as the reservation quota is ultimately honoured over time.

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

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