No Right To Be Appointed Merely Because Of Placement In Select List; But State Must Justify Non-Filling Of Vacancies: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that a candidate placed in the select list gets no indefeasible right to be appointed even if vacancies are available. However, the State has to justify its decision not to fill up the vacancy, the Court added.

"A candidate placed in the select list gets no indefeasible right to be appointed even if vacancies are available...But there is a caveat. The State or its instrumentality cannot arbitrarily deny appointment to a selected candidate. Therefore, when a challenge is laid to State's action in respect of denying appointment to a selected candidate, the burden is on the State to justify its decision for not making appointment from the Select List," observed the Court.

In its conclusion, the Court held :

"Placement in the select list gives no indefeasible right to appointment. The State or its instrumentality for bona fide reasons may choose not to fill up the vacancies. However, if vacancies exist, the State or its instrumentality cannot arbitrarily deny appointment to a person within the zone of consideration in the select list."

Reference was made to the judgment in Shankarsan Dash v. Union of India, (1991) 3 SCC 47.

A 5-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Hrishikesh Roy, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Manoj Misra made this observation while deciding a reference on the point whether the rules of the game can be changed midway through the recruitment process.

The bench held that the eligibility criteria cannot be changed in the middle of the selection process unless expressly allowed by the rules.

Case Title: Tej Prakash Pathak And Ors. v. Rajasthan High Court And Ors. C.A. No. 2634/2013 and connected matters