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Satyajit Kumar & Ors. vs The State of Jharkhand & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 785Decided 2 Aug 2022
Civil Appeal No. 4038 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

In 2016-2017, the Jharkhand government issued a notification and advertisement reserving 100% of Trained Graduate Teacher posts in Government Secondary Schools within 13 "Scheduled Areas" districts exclusively for local residents/candidates of those districts, effectively barring candidates from non-Scheduled districts from applying for those posts. Several unsuccessful candidates from non-Scheduled districts challenged this in the Jharkhand High Court, which in 2020 declared the 100% local-reservation policy unconstitutional and illegal, and directed a fresh (de novo) recruitment process, also quashing appointments already made under the policy. The candidates who had already been selected and appointed under the quashed policy (from the Scheduled Districts) appealed to the Supreme Court, along with related appeals concerning contempt proceedings and other connected recruitment disputes.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with and upheld the High Court's core finding that reserving 100% of posts for local residents of Scheduled Areas violated Articles 14, 16(2), 16(3) and 35 of the Constitution, since such near-total exclusion of outside candidates from a public post is constitutionally impermissible (only a certain degree of preferential treatment for Scheduled Areas is permitted, not a complete bar). However, exercising its special power under Article 142 to do complete justice, the Court declined to let the High Court's remedy of a total fresh/de novo recruitment stand, because that would leave thousands of tribal-area schools without teachers for years while re-recruitment took place, harming the children the reservation was meant to protect. Instead, it modified the relief: rather than cancelling all existing appointments and restarting recruitment, the State was directed to prepare a revised merit list using the already-published cut-off marks, so qualified candidates from non-Scheduled areas could be adjusted in on merit without displacing those already working.

Lesson Learnt

A well-intentioned protective reservation for a disadvantaged region or community cannot go so far as to become an absolute 100% exclusion of everyone else: some balance must be preserved to satisfy constitutional equality guarantees, even when the underlying protective purpose is legitimate.

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

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