Vidya K. & Ors. vs. The State of Karnataka & Ors.
Background
The Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) advertised 18 posts for Home Science lecturers in government First Grade Colleges, and several candidates (including the appellants) were selected and appointed in 2008. A rival candidate challenged the recruitment notification before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, arguing that the notification was invalid because it did not specify a breakdown of particular sub-subjects within "Home Science" (unlike Arts and Science posts, which did list sub-subjects). The Tribunal quashed the notification, and the Karnataka High Court upheld that decision, reasoning that "Home Science" was a broad stream rather than a single subject.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court examined the actual recruitment rules and found no requirement that Home Science posts be broken down by sub-specialisation: the rules only required a Master's degree in the "relevant subject," and Home Science itself was recognized as a distinct subject (including by the UGC, which confirmed there was no subject-wise breakdown requirement for these lecturer posts). The Court held that the Tribunal and High Court had wrongly imported policy considerations about what would benefit students, rather than sticking to what the recruitment rules actually required, and pointed out that applying the same flawed logic would invalidate recruitment for other subjects like History or Political Science too. The Court allowed the appeals, set aside the High Court's and Tribunal's orders, and upheld the recruitment notification and the resulting appointments.
Lesson Learnt
Courts and tribunals reviewing government recruitment must confine themselves to what the actual recruitment rules require, not substitute their own views on what policy would be more beneficial: a recruitment notification cannot be struck down for not doing something the rules never actually demanded.