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Shailendra Kumar Patel v. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 902Decided 20 Aug 2026
Civil Appeal No. 238 of 2026, arising from SLP (C) No. 23061 of 2025
Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

Background

A university Deputy Registrar applied for direct recruitment as Registrar; the Public Service Commission vetted his qualifications, ranked him first, and recommended his appointment. The State instead formed its own committee, which reversed course and declared him ineligible for insufficient teaching experience, sidelining him for years. Two lower courts sided with the State.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that under the applicable service rules, the Commission's eligibility determination is final: the State's "verification" power before appointing is limited to checking document authenticity or catching an obvious error, not re-running a full inquiry that second-guesses the Commission's expert judgment. Since the State alleged no fraud or new evidence, and the Commission itself reaffirmed his eligibility when consulted again, its inquiry was unsustainable. The Court quashed the ineligibility finding and ordered his appointment within three weeks.

Lesson Learnt

When a law gives a Public Service Commission the final word on eligibility, the appointing department cannot quietly override that finding with its own parallel inquiry: genuine doubts must go back to the Commission, not be decided unilaterally.

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

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