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Nitesh Kumar Pandey v. The State of Madhya Pradesh

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 151Decided 7 Feb 2020
Civil Appeal No. 1215 of 2020
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

Candidates were competing for appointment as "Gram Rojgar Sahayak" (village employment assistants) under a rural employment scheme in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, governed by statewide guidelines that did not list a computer-efficiency test as a selection criterion. Midway through the process, the local Collector's office added a computer-efficiency test via a revised schedule applicable only to that district, and some candidates who had initially been on the merit list were dropped from the select list after this test was introduced.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that introducing a new selection criterion (the computer test) after the process had already started, and only in one district under a scheme meant to apply uniformly across the state, was not permissible. It rejected the argument that candidates who appeared for the test without objecting were thereby barred from later challenging it, reasoning that the schedule never disclosed in advance that the test results would be used to screen out already-selected candidates. The appeals by the candidates who had benefited from the test were accordingly dismissed, upholding their exclusion.

Lesson Learnt

A government body conducting a recruitment process cannot add a new, undisclosed eligibility test partway through and use it to disqualify candidates who had already qualified under the original published criteria; simply appearing for such a test does not stop a candidate from later contesting its use against them.

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

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