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Vallampati Sathish Babu vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 443Decided 19 Apr 2022
Civil Appeal No. 2473 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

The appellant took part in a 2012 teacher recruitment drive (DSC-2012) in Andhra Pradesh for 33 notified vacancies and ranked 34th in merit, just outside the cut-off. One of the 33 selected candidates (ranked 18th) failed to appear for counselling, leaving one post unfilled. The appellant claimed he should be appointed to that vacant post as the next person on the merit list. The Administrative Tribunal agreed with him, but the High Court reversed the Tribunal, holding that the applicable recruitment rules did not allow any waiting list.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court. Rule 16(5) of the Andhra Pradesh Direct Recruitment for Teachers Rules, 2012 expressly states that the number of candidates selected cannot exceed the notified vacancies, that there shall be no waiting list, and that any post remaining unfilled for any reason must be carried forward to future recruitment, not filled from outside the selected list. Since the appellant was never part of the final selected list of 33, and the rules barred any waiting list, he had no legal right to claim the vacancy that arose when the 18th-ranked candidate skipped counselling.

Lesson Learnt

When recruitment rules explicitly abolish any waiting list, a candidate who narrowly missed the cut-off cannot claim a vacancy created by another selected candidate's no-show: such vacancies must go to the next recruitment cycle, not down the existing merit list.

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

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