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Shripal Bhati & Anr. v. State of U.P. & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 102Decided 29 Jan 2020
Civil Appeal No. 802 of 2020
Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Krishna Murari

Background

Two Assistant Project Engineers at NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) challenged the appointment of a colleague who had been brought in on deputation from the UP Power Corporation to the post of Project Engineer (Electrical), and his later permanent absorption into NOIDA. They argued the post should only have been filled by promotion or direct recruitment, not deputation, and that the absorption was improper. The Allahabad High Court had already dismissed their challenge, and they appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It held that NOIDA's own 1981 Service Regulations expressly allow recruitment by deputation, and reading one clause in isolation (as the appellants wanted) to exclude deputation would make other parts of the regulation meaningless. The Court also found the absorption was validly carried out under separate statutory rules governing absorption of power-sector employees into government bodies. Separately, the Court held the appellants had no legal standing to object in the first place, since neither of them was even eligible for promotion to that post at the relevant time: they had not completed the required years of service.

Lesson Learnt

To challenge someone else's government appointment in court, you generally need to show the decision actually caused you a personal legal injury: simply disliking how a post was filled, without being personally eligible or affected, is not enough to give you "standing" to sue.

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

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