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State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. v. Bhawana Mishra

with connected appeals · 2026 INSC 38Decided 8 Jan 2026
with connected appeals
Justice Rajesh Bindal · Justice Manmohan

Background

After the state allowed private colleges to run an Ayurvedic Nursing course (vastly increasing trained candidates beyond available government vacancies), candidates from the original government institution sought appointment based on old practice; the High Court agreed on "legitimate expectation" grounds.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held legitimate expectation didn't apply since the underlying policy landscape had fundamentally changed, no candidate from any batch since 2010-11 had been appointed (so there was no discriminatory comparator), and the admission advertisement never promised appointment.

Lesson Learnt

Completing a government-recognized course doesn't create a legal right to a government job, especially where recruitment policy or the eligible-candidate pool has genuinely changed.

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

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