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Sunil Kumar Yadav and Others vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others

Review Petition (Civil) · 2022 INSC 42Decided 11 Jan 2022
Review Petition (Civil) No. 32 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · Ajay Rastogi

Background

The petitioners' original special leave petition, challenging an Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) order of 3 December 2019, had already been dismissed by the Supreme Court on 26 July 2021. That dispute arose from a 2012 recruitment notification, where the state was earlier directed (following the Court's decision in State of U.P. v. Shiv Kumar Pathak) to fill remaining vacancies through a fresh advertisement rather than completing the old selection process; the petitioners argued the original 2012 selection should have been carried through to completion, and also raised a fee-refund issue. Having lost on merits in July 2021, they filed this review petition asking the Court to reconsider that dismissal.

Decision Breakdown

The Court first granted permission to file the review petition and condoned the delay in filing it. On the substance, the petitioners raised a new argument that 95 candidates who had not met the prescribed minimum-marks criteria (60% for reserved category, 70% for unreserved category, as set by the Court's own earlier interim orders) had been wrongly selected. After examining the grounds raised, the Court found no merit or reason to interfere with its earlier order, and dismissed the review petition.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition is not a second chance to re-argue a case on fresh grounds or perceived irregularities after losing on merits. The Supreme Court will only reconsider a final order where the review petition discloses a genuine, compelling error, and simply raising new selection-related grievances after the fact is not enough.

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

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