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U.P. Secondary Education Service Selection Board v. The State of U.P.

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 799Decided 23 Aug 2017
Civil Appeal No. 10808 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

The U.P. Secondary Education Service Selection Board appealed against a High Court Reference Order that interpreted Rule 13(5) of the U.P. Secondary Education Services Selection Board Rules, 1998, confining a particular earlier ruling's applicability only to vacancies that were the subject matter of the same advertisement, and not to vacancies that were notified but fell outside that advertisement. The Board was concerned about what would happen to candidates who had already been selected and reported for duty but could not be accommodated because no vacancy was available for them.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court clarified that where a candidate has already been selected by the Board but could not join an allotted institution for want of a vacancy, Rule 13 (as amended in 2007) obliges the District Inspector of Schools to recommend, and the Board to allocate, such a candidate to another institution with an available vacancy: the Board cannot simply leave already-selected candidates unaccommodated. The impugned Reference Order was clarified to this limited extent, and all three connected appeals were disposed of accordingly, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Once a candidate has been validly selected through a recruitment process, the recruiting authority has a continuing duty to accommodate them in any available or subsequently arising vacancy, even if their originally intended posting falls through for want of a vacancy.

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

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