Overage Candidate Can't Claim Regular Appointment Despite Long Service As Part-Time Librarian: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a candidate who was over-age on the cut-off date cannot claim appointment to a regular post merely because she had rendered long years of service as a part-time librarian.Justice Sanjeev Narula thus dismissed the challenge to a selection process for the post of Librarian in a Delhi Government-aided school.Petitioner had been working as a part-time librarian since 2002, challenging the appointment of another candidate pursuant to a recruitment process initiated in 2018. She contended that her long association with the institution entitled her to preference or weightage in the selection process and that the selected candidate was wrongly appointed against an unreserved post despite belonging to the PwD category.Rejecting the plea, the Court noted that eligibility conditions prescribed in the recruitment rules are mandatory and that the petitioner was undisputedly over-age on the relevant cut-off date. It held that once a candidate does not meet the age criterion, no amount of past service or experience can cure the defect.“Once ineligibility is established on the face of the selection record, the court cannot compel the employer to treat the candidate as eligible. The Petitioner's participation in the interview, prompted by the proceedings before the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, does not cure statutory ineligibility. Participation permitted as an administrative response to a recommendation cannot operate as a waiver of recruitment rules, particularly in a regime where recruitment and recognition are tied to statutory compliance. The Petitioner's ineligibility is therefore fatal to the challenge at the threshold,” it observed.The Court further observed that the petitioner's engagement was purely part-time and temporary, and such service did not confer any vested right to appointment or entitlement to experience marks under the applicable Directorate of Education scheme, which contemplated experience gained in regular service.“Judicial review does not allow the court to rewrite the scheme by treating part-time consolidated engagements as equivalent to regular service in a pay scale,” it said.On the challenge to the appointment of a PwD candidate against an unreserved post, the Court reiterated that horizontal reservation operates across categories, and a PwD candidate can be appointed against an unreserved vacancy if found meritorious.“Horizontal reservation cuts across vertical categories…the mere description of the vacancy as “UR” in the advertisement does not preclude its operation as a horizontally reserved PwD seat,” it said.As such, the Court declined to interfere with the selection and dismissed the writ petition.Appearance: Ms. Aditi Gupta (DHCLSC), Ms. Lavanya Bhardwaj and Ms. Anjali Choudhary, Advocates with Petitioner in person; Mrs. Avnish Ahlawat, SC for GNCTD Services with Mr. Nitesh Kumar Singh, Ms. Aliza Alam and Mr. Mohnish Sehrawat, Advocates for R-1, 2. Counsel for Respondent No. 3. (Appearance not given). Mr. Anuj Aggarwal, Ms. Bhumika Kundra, Ms. Tanya Rose, Ms. Kritika Matta and Mr. Lovekesh Chauhan, Advocates for R-5. Case title: Sunita Rani v. GNCTDCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 204Case no.: W.P.(C) 223/2019Click here to read order

Overage Candidate Can't Claim Regular Appointment Despite Long Service As Part-Time Librarian: Delhi High Court

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