Eligibility criteria for recruitment can’t be changed midway, rules Supreme Court

Maintaining that transparency and non-discrimination must be the hallmarks of recruitment to public services, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that rules for selection of candidates for a particular post can’t be changed midway through the process or after the completion of the process.

“Eligibility criteria for being placed in the select list, notified at the commencement of the recruitment process, can’t be changed midway through the recruitment process unless the extant rules so permit or the advertisement, which is not contrary to the extant rules, so permit,” a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.

The Bench, which also included Justice Hrishikesh Roy, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Manoj Misra, said placement in the select list gave no indefeasible right to a candidate to be appointed.

The top court said the state or its instrumentality for bona fide reasons may choose not to fill up vacancies. However, if vacancies exist, the state or its instrumentalities cannot arbitrarily deny appointment to a person within the zone of consideration in the select list, it noted.

Pronouncing the verdict for the Bench, Justice Misra said: “If such change is permissible under the extant rules or advertisement, the change will have to meet the requirement of Article 14 of the Constitution and satisfy the test of non-arbitrariness”.

Subject to the extant rules, recruiting bodies may devise appropriate procedure for bringing the recruitment process to its logical end provided the procedure adopted was transparent, non-arbitrary and had a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved, the top court said.