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Union of India & Ors. vs. Manjurani Routray & Ors. (2023 INSC 787)

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 787Decided 1 Sept 2023
Civil Appeal No. 2299 of 2010
J.K. Maheshwari · K.V. Viswanathan

Background

Respondent no. 1, a Principal System Analyst at the National Informatics Centre, Cuttack, was twice passed over for promotion to Scientist E under the "Flexible Complementing Scheme" while her juniors were promoted. She approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which merely directed the department to explain her low interview rating, without quashing her juniors' promotions. She then challenged that CAT order before the Orissa High Court, seeking only a writ of certiorari, but the High Court went further and struck down Rule 4(b) of the governing 1998 Rules as invalid, even though its validity had never actually been challenged in the pleadings or prayers before either the CAT or the High Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a court cannot strike down a statutory rule as ultra vires unless a party has specifically pleaded the grounds for such a challenge and asked for that relief, neither had happened here, and the Union of India never got a chance to defend the rule's validity. Since the High Court's declaration invalidating Rule 4(b) was itself unsustainable, the respondent's underlying grievance about denial of promotion also could not survive, especially since the scheme had since been revised, she had already been promoted during the litigation, and had since retired. The Court also recalled an earlier order that had allowed roughly 139 other officers to be impleaded as intervenors supporting the High Court's order, since they had no independent right to press the vires challenge that was never properly raised, while clarifying it expressed no view on the Rule's validity on merits for any other pending or future case.

Lesson Learnt

A court exercising writ or judicial review jurisdiction cannot declare a law or rule invalid on a ground that was never specifically pleaded and never actually prayed for: relief must match the case actually made out, not issues the court decides to take up on its own.

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

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