Appointments can’t be cancelled without hearing: Punjab and Haryana High Court 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that appointments, once given to candidates, cannot be cancelled by passing speaking orders when they are not at fault and without giving them an opportunity of hearing.

The ruling came as the division bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma set aside notice/order dated May 8, 2023, vide which their selection and appointment on the post of masters/mistress in different subjects was cancelled. The process was carried out in pursuance to advertisement dated January 8, 2022.

The matter was brought to the bench’s notice after an appeal was filed against the state of Punjab and other respondents by Kiran Bala and other appellants through senior advocate DS Patwalia and Bikramjit Singh Patwalia.

The bench, during the course of hearing, observed the advertisement in the matter was issued on January 8, 2022. Revised answer keys of different subject were uploaded after the written examination and subsequent uploading of notices seeking objections. The candidates were also called for document verification on the basis of revised final answer key before the issuance of a provisional select list.

The bench also observed that petitions challenging the revised answer key, and related matters, were disposed of by the single Judge with the direction to the Principal Secretary, Education, to consider a report submitted by an expert committee in accordance with law. 

The bench added appointment letters were issued to the appellants in January 2023, but they were neither the impleaded to the litigation, nor this was brought to the single Judge’s notice. The petitioners challenged the speaking order, but the single Judge, dismissed it on the ground that scope of judicial review in such matters was extremely narrow

The bench asserted speaking orders dated May 8, 2023, March 15, 2023 and the ones in case of all the appellants were without application of mind and without considering the law. “The appointments issued to the candidates cannot be cancelled by passing the speaking orders when there is no fault of the candidates, that too without giving them opportunity of hearing. Further, there is no valid justification of constituting three expert committees one after the other,” the bench added.