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The Superintending Engineer, Operation, Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd. v. Ch. Bhaskara Chary

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 428Decided 2 Apr 2025
C.A. No.-004724-004724 - 2025
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Joymalya Bagchi

Background

Ch. Bhaskara Chary applied in 2001 for appointment as a Lower Division Clerk under a scheme reserving 50% posts for ex-casual labourers, but his application was rejected over doubts about the genuineness of his service certificate, and later on other grounds despite a High Court direction to reconsider him. He eventually discovered that other candidates with fewer days of contractual service than him had been appointed to the same post under the same notification, and after prolonged litigation from 2008 onward, the High Court ordered the power distribution company to reconsider his case on par with those candidates.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court rejected the appellant-employer's argument that the list showing the respondent's placement was merely a list of "eligible candidates" rather than a seniority list, noting the list was titled a seniority list and the employer's own affidavit admitted that candidates with less service than the respondent had been regularised. The Court held the respondent's case could not be denied on this basis and that other objections raised by the employer (genuineness of his certificate, availability of vacancies) were factual matters for the employer to weigh, not for the Supreme Court to decide. The appeal was disposed of with a direction to the employer to reconsider the respondent's appointment within six weeks, given the case had already dragged on since 2008.

Lesson Learnt

Government employers must treat similarly placed candidates consistently. If less-qualified or less-senior candidates were regularised under a scheme, a more senior candidate cannot be arbitrarily excluded, and courts will enforce this equal-treatment principle even after years of delay.

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

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