Eligibility criteria for the selection process notified at the commencement of the recruitment process cannot be changed midway during the recruitment process unless the extant rules so permit, says the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in Tej Prakash Pathak & Others v Rajasthan High Court & Others [2024 INSC 847].
Extant rules having statutory force are binding on the recruiting bodies both in terms of procedure and eligibility. Where the rules are non-existent or silent, administrative instructions may fill in the gaps.
Placement in the select list gives no indefeasible right to an appointment. But 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 instrumentalities cannot arbitrarily deny appointment to a person within the zone of consideration in the select list.
The appointing authority, in the absence of rules to the contrary, can devise a procedure for the selection of a candidate suitable to a post. it may also set benchmarks for different stages of the recruitment process. If any such benchmark is set, the same is to be stipulated before the commencement of that recruitment process.
But if the extant Rules or the advertisement inviting applications empower the competent authority to set benchmarks at different stages of the recruitment process, then such benchmarks may be set any time before that stage is reached so that neither the candidate nor the evaluator/ examiner/ interviewer is taken by surprise.
Reference
- Tej Prakash Pathak & Others v Rajasthan High Court & Others [2024 INSC 847]
