Advertising Vacancy In Newspaper Having Less Circulation Violates Fundamental Rights Of Prospective Candidates: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has observed that failure to properly advertise vacant posts is a violation of the fundamental right of the prospective/potential candidates and is also unfair to such candidates. The Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice J. J. Munir issued this order.

Essentially, one Ravi Pratap Mishra had moved before the single judge stating that he was appointed as a clerk in a school, however, Mishra the District Inspector Of School had refused to sanction his appointment as a clerk on the ground that the advertisement clerical recruitment had been published in a newspaper having less circulation in the concerned area.

The single judge had refused to grant him any relief as it observed that prior to his appointment, the vacancy was not properly advertised. Therefore, challenging the single judge's order, the petitioner moved before the division bench with the instant plea.

Now, the division bench noted that the advertisement was made in a newspaper, named 'Hindustan Kaa Swaroop', which hardly had any circulation in the area concerned.

The division bench further added that since the proper procedure for filling up the vacancy was not followed, therefore, the Single Judge was justified in not finding any merit in the writ petition as a fair opportunity was not afforded to all the prospective candidates to apply for the post.

In view of this, the Court upheld the single judge's order and dismissed the appeal with the following observation:

"We do not find any error in the order passed by the learned Single Judge as in terms of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, an advertisement has to be issued for inviting the applications giving fair opportunity to all the candidates."

Case title - Ravi Pratap Mishra v. State of U.P. and others [SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 289 of 2022]

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 287

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