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Rabari Prabhatbhai Gugubhai & Ors. v. State of Gujarat & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 378Decided 19 Apr 2018
Civil Appeal No. 18020 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

Six candidates who had been selected for Driver posts in the Subordinate Courts of Gujarat (five under the General category, one under the Socially and Economically Backward Category) could not actually be appointed because the Gujarat High Court's option-allocation system only honoured each candidate's first district preference, leaving them unadjusted even though they had cleared selection. They challenged this before the High Court, lost, and then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

While the appeal was pending, the Supreme Court learned that the High Court had meanwhile opened a fresh recruitment process for 24 Driver vacancies. The Court directed the High Court to file an affidavit on available vacancies, and upon confirming that vacancies existed, held that the interests of justice required the six appellants to be accommodated. The Court disposed of the appeals by directing the Gujarat High Court (through the second respondent) to adjust and appoint the appellants as fresh candidates in their respective categories, while expressly clarifying that this outcome was based on the peculiar facts of the case and was not to be treated as a precedent. The High Court was also directed to issue a corrigendum reflecting the reduced number of vacancies within two weeks.

Lesson Learnt

Even after a legal setback, courts can craft practical, equitable remedies using facts that emerge during the case itself (like newly available vacancies), but such tailored relief is explicitly case-specific and does not automatically become a rule for future, similarly situated candidates.

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

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