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The State of Jammu and Kashmir v. Shaheena Masarat

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 573Decided 29 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal No. 4991 of 2012
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Sanjiv Khanna

Background

Under the "Rehbar-e-Taleem" (Re-T) scheme for appointing community teaching guides in Jammu and Kashmir, a rival candidate (Respondent No. 2) was selected over the respondent (Respondent No. 1) in 2003 despite being over the scheme's prescribed upper age limit of 35 years. Respondent No. 1 challenged the appointment, arguing the selected candidate was over-age; a single judge of the High Court dismissed her petition by treating the age limit as merely directory ("as far as possible"), but the Division Bench reversed this, directed the appointment of Respondent No. 1, and also allowed the over-age candidate to continue in service. The State of Jammu and Kashmir appealed against this dual-appointment direction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the Division Bench that the phrase "as far as possible" regarding the upper age limit had to be read as a mandatory requirement, not merely directory, because treating it as discretionary would give officials unfettered power to select over-age candidates and violate the constitutional guarantee of equal opportunity in public employment under Articles 14 and 16. Since the rival candidate had crossed the age limit on the relevant cut-off date and a later rule-relaxation (SRO 30 of 2003) did not apply retroactively to this already-initiated selection, she was correctly found ineligible, and Respondent No. 1's appointment was rightly directed. However, the Court held that the High Court erred in directing that both candidates be appointed to what was a single post; since the over-age candidate had continued working for many years by then, the Court directed the State to accommodate her in some other vacancy instead, without back-dated benefits.

Lesson Learnt

Eligibility conditions like age limits in a government recruitment scheme, even when phrased with flexible language such as "as far as possible," will usually be treated as mandatory by courts if treating them as optional would open the door to arbitrary or unequal selection of candidates.

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

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