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Sudhir Singh and Others vs State of U.P. and Others

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 960Decided 30 Oct 2023
Civil Appeal No. 7069 of 2023

Background

Three appellants, who were serving in the Armed Forces, applied for the post of Village Development Officer in Uttar Pradesh under the Ex-Servicemen category before they were actually released from service, and without possessing a required computer proficiency certificate (C.C.C. Certificate) at the time of application. They were initially given appointment letters, but the authorities later issued show-cause notices and then declared their appointments null and void, since on the last date for submitting applications they were still in service (not yet "ex-servicemen") and lacked the required certificate. The Allahabad High Court rejected their challenge to this cancellation, leading to the present appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that eligibility for a post must be judged as of the cut-off date specified in the recruitment advertisement (usually the last date for submitting applications), not a later or prospective date, relying on a consistent line of its own precedents. Since the appellants were still serving in the Armed Forces on that date, they could not be treated as Ex-Servicemen, and a certificate mentioning only a future release date could not retroactively confer that status, especially since events could always intervene before the actual release. The Court also held that they had failed to prove they held an educational qualification equivalent to the required certificate despite being given an opportunity to do so. The appeal was dismissed and the High Court's judgment was upheld, though the Court directed that any salary already paid to the appellants for work actually performed need not be recovered, and any amount already recovered be refunded.

Lesson Learnt

For any competitive recruitment, eligibility conditions (such as being an "ex-serviceman" or holding a specific certificate) must be satisfied as on the last date fixed for submitting applications, not on some later or promised date, even a genuinely-issued certificate about a future status cannot substitute for actually meeting the criteria in time.

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

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