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Sunita Lahu Panchpande v. The District Collector & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1002Decided 16 Sept 2026
Civil Appeal No. 6379 of 2023
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Sheel Nagu

Background

The appellant, an Anganwadi Sevika with over 10 years' experience in Jalgaon district, applied for a Nashik district Anganwadi Supervisor post advertised in 2013, even though the advertisement expressly required 10 years' experience as a Sevika within Nashik district itself. She was placed on the waiting list and, after a clarification letter from the Divisional Commissioner suggested the district-specific requirement did not exist, was appointed to a vacancy created when another selected candidate was found ineligible. A rival wait-listed candidate, Gitanjali Sudhakar Shirsat, who was actually eligible under the advertisement, challenged the appointment; the Bombay High Court set aside the appellant's appointment and directed that the rival candidate be appointed instead, while suggesting the appellant could be accommodated as an Anganwadi Sevika in Jalgaon.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the governing 2001 Government Resolution, read together with the advertisement's own explicit instruction that only Sevikas working within Nashik district's tribal/rural projects could apply, clearly required district-specific experience, a requirement the appellant admittedly did not meet. The Divisional Commissioner's clarification purporting to waive this requirement was itself erroneous and, in any case, was not something a Divisional Commissioner had authority to issue (any genuine ambiguity should have been referred to the government department concerned). Relying on its earlier ruling in Distt. Collector, Vizianagaram v. M. Tripura Sundari Devi, the Court held that appointing a candidate who does not meet an advertisement's stated qualifications is a "fraud on the public" against other eligible aspirants who did not apply, unless the advertisement itself reserved a right to relax the requirement (which it did not here). The appeal was accordingly dismissed, upholding the High Court's decision, with the rightly-placed candidate entitled to the post and its benefits within two months, while the appellant was allowed time until 30 September 2026 to wind up pending work.

Lesson Learnt

An appointment made in disregard of an advertisement's stated eligibility criteria is invalid and unfair to other applicants who did not apply because they lacked those very qualifications. A subordinate clarification purporting to relax such criteria, issued by an authority without power to do so, cannot rescue an otherwise ineligible appointee, even after years of blemish-free service in the post.

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

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