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Suman Devi v. The State of Uttarakhand

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 212Decided 25 Mar 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 000554-000557 of 2021
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

The Uttarakhand government advertised 440 posts of Female Health Worker and Auxiliary Nurse-Midwife (ANM) in 2016, but the advertisement omitted to mention a long-standing eligibility rule, inherited from pre-reorganisation Uttar Pradesh service rules, requiring candidates to have passed Intermediate (10+2) with science as a prerequisite in addition to completing the ANM training course. The appellants, qualified ANMs who did not hold the science-stream Intermediate qualification, were held ineligible and their claims were rejected; a single judge and then a Division Bench of the Uttarakhand High Court upheld this view, rejecting the ANMs' challenge. They appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the omission in the advertisement meant the science-stream requirement did not apply to them, and that state rules could not add qualifications beyond what the Indian Nursing Council Act prescribed.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the UP recruitment rules (as amended in 1998), requiring Intermediate with science as an eligibility condition, continued in force in Uttarakhand after the state's creation under the UP Reorganisation Act, since the power to "adapt" laws did not mean an unmentioned rule simply vanished, all pre-existing rules remained operative unless expressly modified. The Court also held that the advertisement's failure to mention this qualification could not estop the State from enforcing its own valid statutory rules, since no promise or omission by the State can override a binding rule, and eligibility must be judged as of the last date for applications under the governing rules, not merely the advertisement's stated terms. It further rejected the argument that the Indian Nursing Council Act's training/educational standards displaced the State's power under Article 309 to additionally prescribe its own minimum qualifications for public employment, finding no conflict between the two regimes, and dismissed all the appeals.

Lesson Learnt

A government advertisement that omits to mention an existing, legally binding eligibility rule does not relieve the government of enforcing that rule, and job applicants cannot claim eligibility based on gaps in an advertisement when a valid statutory service rule says otherwise.

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

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