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Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay v. Palak Dhari Yadav & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 8068 of 2009)Decided 3 Feb 2016
Civil Appeal No. 8068 of 2009
Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

A school management in Mau, U.P. advertised and directly recruited Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay as Clerk in 1989. A Class-IV employee of the school, Palak Dhari Yadav, challenged this, arguing the rules required the single vacant post to be filled by promotion from existing staff, not by open recruitment. The Allahabad High Court's Single Judge upheld the appointment, but a Division Bench reversed this on appeal, invalidating the appointment and directing that the post be filled by promotion instead.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court declined to decide the underlying legal question of whether the post had to be filled only by promotion, noting the respondent (who had since retired and did not contest the appeal) was no longer able to benefit from that question anyway. Instead, relying on the facts that Upadhyay had continued working the post for about 26 years under an interim stay, no other in-service candidate had come forward, and no prejudice would result, the Court allowed him to continue in the post until his own retirement. It directed that once he leaves the post, it must then be filled by promoting a suitable in-service candidate as per the applicable rules.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can craft practical, equity-based resolutions in long-pending service disputes rather than mechanically reopening settled employment after decades, especially where the original challenger is no longer affected and no one else is prejudiced.

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

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