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The State of West Bengal & Ors. v. Debasis Das & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 844Decided 1 Sept 2017
Civil Appeal No. 11139 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

Six candidates had been selected for the post of Assistant Investigator in West Bengal's Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics under a 2007 recruitment process, but the selection could not be finalized for roughly a decade due to litigation and an intervening amendment to the recruitment rules. The candidates approached the Calcutta High Court, which disposed of their writ petition on the State's assurance that it would bring uniformity to the qualification rules; dissatisfied with how this was handled, the State of West Bengal appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that only six candidates were affected by the decade-long litigation and that 75 posts in the cadre remained vacant throughout this period due to the ongoing dispute. In the interest of equity and fairness, given how long the matter had dragged on, the Court directed the State to appoint those six individuals to the post under the already-conducted selection process, while applying the newer recruitment rules only to the remaining vacancies going forward. The Court was explicit that this direction was issued only because of the peculiar facts of this case to do complete justice between the parties, and expressly stated it should not be treated as a precedent for other claims. The appeal was disposed of with this direction, finally resolving the dispute.

Lesson Learnt

The Supreme Court can craft a one-off, equity-driven remedy to end a long-pending recruitment dispute, but when it does so "in the peculiar facts of the case," it will say so explicitly, meaning the outcome is not meant to set a rule for other similarly-situated people.

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

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