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Srikant Roy & Ors. v. State of Jharkhand & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 10874 of 2016)Decided 16 Nov 2016
Civil Appeal No. 10874 of 2016
Chief Justice T.S. Thakur · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud

Background

Subordinate judges in Jharkhand challenged a 2008 selection process for Additional District Judge posts, arguing it wrongly allocated vacancies between promotees and direct recruits from the Bar in violation of the prescribed 50:25:25 quota ratio. The Jharkhand High Court's Division Bench had set aside the 2008 selection process on this ground. Separately, candidates from a later 2010 selection round filed connected writ petitions claiming they were shortchanged on the number of direct-recruitment vacancies actually available.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had erred by overlooking that no vacancy existed in the direct-recruitment quota as of the relevant date (30 April 2008), meaning the judicial officers challenging the 2008 selection (who could only compete in the direct-recruit category) had no standing to object to a process that filled posts only through promotion. The Court distinguished between "posts" (fixed by the cadre strength) and "vacancies" (which fluctuate), holding that quota percentages apply to posts, not to transient vacancies. It therefore set aside the High Court's 2008 judgment and restored the validity of that selection process, and separately held that the 2010 selection process (which filled only 8 notified direct-recruitment vacancies) was also valid and could not be reopened for petitioners who ranked below the top 8 candidates. All connected writ petitions were dismissed and the appeal was allowed.

Lesson Learnt

In reservation and quota disputes, the relevant benchmark for calculating entitlement is usually the number of sanctioned posts in a cadre, not the number of vacancies open at any given moment: a distinction that can decide who has a genuine right to challenge a selection process.

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

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