Somesh Thapliyal v. Vice Chancellor, H.N.B. Garhwal University
Background
A group of teachers in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department of H.N.B. Garhwal University were selected through the full statutory selection process (advertisement, interview, selection committee, and approval by the Executive Council) between 2004 and 2007, but their appointment letters unilaterally imposed contractual, three-year terms they had never agreed to. After serving 15-17 years and being threatened with having to compete afresh when the University became a Central University, they challenged this in the High Court and lost.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that because the teachers had gone through the full statutory selection procedure under the University's governing Act, their appointments were substantive in character regardless of the one-sided contractual label added later, especially since employees in their position have no real bargaining power to reject such terms. The Court noted that the University itself had since told the University Grants Commission that these teachers held duly sanctioned posts. The High Court's judgment was quashed, and the appellants were declared substantively appointed teachers of the Central University entitled to regular pay and benefits; connected contempt petitions were closed as a result.
Lesson Learnt
An employer cannot defeat a genuine, rules-based selection process simply by inserting one-sided "contractual" conditions into the appointment letter afterward: an employee who completed a lawful selection process cannot be left permanently insecure because of terms imposed without real consent.