Appointment Secured On The Basis Of A Fraudulent Caste Certificate Is Void Ab Initio: SC [Read Order]

The Supreme Court has observed that an appointment secured on the basis of a fraudulent caste certificate is void ab initio and Government Resolutions and Circulars cannot protect such appointees.

The bench of Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjeev Khanna was considering an appeal filed against a Bombay High Court judgment.

In this case, the party respondents (in appeal before SC) were appointed as Assistant Engineers Grade I against a post reserved for the Scheduled Tribe category. Later their claim of belonging to a Scheduled Tribe were invalidated by the Scrutiny Committee. The Government of Maharashtra, by its resolutions, treated them as belonging to a Special Backward Class category and they were absorbed on 23 August 2004 on that basis. The appellants (before SC) filed a writ petition before the High Court seeking a declaration that the said protection of service granted in favour of the respondents and the order of promotion ought to be quashed and set aside.

The High Court had held that since the respondents had entered service prior to the appellants, they were entitled to be protected notwithstanding the invalidation of their claim to belong to a member of the Scheduled Tribe. It also observed that the decision in Punjab National Bank v Vilas Govindrao Bokade has not been specifically overruled by the decision of a three-Judge Bench in Chairman and Managing Director, Food Corporation of India v Jagdish Balaram Bahira.

The Apex Court bench noted that in Punjab National Bank, the Supreme Court had enforced similar resolutions and held that the candidates were protected by virtue of the government resolutions. It said that although the decision in Punjab National Bank was not specifically adverted to by the three-Judge Bench in Food Corporation of India, the latter had made these observations:

Administrative circulars and government resolutions are subservient to legislative mandate and cannot be contrary either to constitutional norms or statutory principles. Where a candidate has obtained an appointment to a post on the solemn basis that he or she belongs to a designated caste, tribe or class for whom the post is meant and it is found upon verification by the Scrutiny Committee that the claim is false, the services of such an individual cannot be protected by taking recourse to administrative circulars or resolutions. Protection of claims of a usurper is an act of deviance to the constitutional scheme as well as to statutory mandate. No government resolution or circular can override constitutional or statutory norms. The principle that the Government is bound by its own circulars is well settled but it cannot apply in a situation such as the present. Protecting the services of a candidate who is found not to belong to the community or tribe for whom the reservation is intended substantially encroaches upon legal rights of genuine members of the reserved communities whose just entitlements are negated by the grant of a seat to an ineligible person. In such a situation where the rights of genuine members of reserved groups or communities are liable to be affected detrimentally, government circulars or resolutions cannot operate to their detriment.

The bench therefore observed that the High Court was incorrect in observing that the decision in Punjab National Bank was not expressly or impliedly overruled by the three-Judge Bench in Food Corporation of India. It said:

The decision in Punjab National Bank must be read in light of these observations by the three-Judge Bench of this Court in Food Corporation of India. It is trite law that an appointment secured on the basis of a fraudulent certificate is void ab initio. It is not open to the government to circumvent the existing statutory mandate by indefinitely protecting the deceitful activities of such candidates through the use of circulars or resolution.

Case no.: Civil Appeal No 1865 of 2020 
Case name: Vijay Kishanrao Kurundkar vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors
Coram: Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Sanjeev Khanna 
Counsel: Advocates Sudhanshu Choudhary and Sachin Patil

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