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Sushil Kumar Pandey & Ors. vs The High Court of Jharkhand & Anr.

Not available · 2024 INSC 97Decided 1 Feb 2024
Not available
Justice Aniruddha Bose · Justice Sanjay Kumar

Background

The Jharkhand High Court advertised 22 vacancies in 2022 for the District Judge cadre, and based on the prescribed cut-off marks, a select list of 66 candidates (following the standard 1:3 ratio to vacancies) was prepared. However, in a Full Court meeting held in March 2023, the High Court's administrative side decided, after the selection process and marks had already been finalized, to recommend only 13 candidates for actual appointment, applying a fresh requirement that candidates secure at least 50% aggregate marks, a condition not part of the original advertisement or the governing 2001 Recruitment Rules. Affected candidates who had qualified under the original criteria but were left out by this new 50% cut-off challenged the High Court's decision before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the writ petitions and quashed the part of the High Court's Full Court Resolution that imposed the 50% aggregate cut-off after the selection process was already complete. It held that a recruiting authority cannot change the qualifying criteria for a selection process once marks have been declared and a merit/select list has been prepared under the existing rules, doing so is contrary to settled service-law principles and the specific Rules governing Jharkhand's judicial recruitment. The Court rejected the High Court administration's argument that a rule permitting reassessment of individual candidates' suitability in special situations could be used to justify a blanket, after-the-fact change to the entire selection criteria. It therefore directed the High Court to recommend for appointment all candidates who qualified under the original merit list, to fill the notified vacancies, without applying the belated 50% cut-off.

Lesson Learnt

The rules of a selection or examination process must be fixed and known in advance; a recruiting body cannot retroactively change the qualifying criteria after candidates have already competed and been ranked under the original rules, as that unfairly deprives successful candidates of the benefit of the process they participated in.

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

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