The Chief Regional Officer, The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Pradip and Anr.
Background
An employee had been appointed as an Assistant with an insurance company on the strength of a caste certificate claiming he belonged to the "Dhangad" Scheduled Tribe, but a government Scrutiny Committee later found he actually belonged to the "Dhangar" community, which is a nomadic tribe and not a Scheduled Tribe, and invalidated his claim. The Bombay High Court nevertheless protected his job, relying on a Full Bench ruling that allowed such protection, but that very Full Bench ruling had since been overruled by a three-judge Supreme Court bench in an unrelated case, which held that an appointment obtained on a false caste claim is void from the outset.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that the High Court's decision rested entirely on a precedent that no longer represented good law. It examined two later two-judge Supreme Court rulings and related government circulars that the employee relied on, and found they applied only to a narrow category of cases where the relevant High Court order had already become final before the overruling judgment, which was not the case here, since this employee's matter had not attained finality at that time. Applying the binding rule that a false caste claim voids an appointment from the start, and holding that government circulars cannot override that rule, the Court allowed the insurance company's appeal, set aside the High Court's judgment, and dismissed the employee's writ petition.
Lesson Learnt
An appointment secured through an invalid Scheduled Tribe/Caste certificate for a reserved post is void from the beginning, and this consequence cannot be escaped through government circulars or High Court precedents that have themselves been overruled by a higher or larger bench.