Recruitment Advertised For Tribal Areas Creates Legitimate Expectation; State Can't Post Candidate Elsewhere Sans Reasons: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has held that the State cannot extend an attractive promise at the stage of recruitment and later altogether depart from it without any rational justification.The bench of Justice Farjand Ali held that a legitimate expectation could undoubtedly arise in the candidates' mind at the time of entering service that their posting would be in or around the regions for which the recruitment was conceived especially when the advertisement was structured in a manner that conveyed a linkage with such areas.An advertisement was issued in 2013 for the posts of constables in Minerals Protection Force in which 80 posts were reserved for the TSP (Tribal Sub-Plan) area. The petitioners applied under the TSP category, and were recruited. However, despite being the residents of the scheduled/TSP area, their appointments were made under the Non-TSP Cadre.A Government notification was also issued in 2018 directing employees who were residents of TSP areas but posted in the Non-TSP regions to submit applications for transfer, which was done by the petitioners. However, no decision was communicated on those. Hence, petitions were moved before the Court. It was the case of the State that the petitioners were appointed in Non-TSP areas as per merit, availability of vacancies, and administrative requirements at the relevant time. The option forms issued in 2018 did not create any absolute right of transfer but were subject to exigencies of service and organizational necessity. After hearing the contentions, the Court highlighted that all the petitioners belonged to the TSP area, and the advertisement was issued with the nomenclature “Constable Mineral Protection Force in Mines and Geology”. The recruitment also carried reservation for candidates belonging to tribal areas. And petitioners had participated under this reservation only. The Court further highlighted the State's admission that even though the recruitment was titled as that of the Mineral Protection Force and reservation was given for TSP areas, in reality, not a single recruited employee was deployed in the Mineral Protection Force. In this light, the Court opined that the petitioners' participation in the recruitment was under the legitimate belief that their deployment would also be in the tribal/mineral rich belts. The Court observed, “A legitimate expectation can, without doubt, arise in the mind of a candidate at the time of entering service particularly when an advertisement is structured in a manner that clearly conveys a linkage with tribal/mineral areas that their posting would be in or around the regions for which the recruitment was conceived. The petitioners, belonging to vulnerable tribal communities, deserved at least a measure of sympathetic consideration. The State cannot extend an attractive promise at the stage of recruitment and later altogether depart from it without any rational justification.”Hence, in order to balance equities and to ensure that the petitioners shall not be left remediless, the State was directed to consider shifting the petitioners to the Maharana Pratap Battalion, Pratapgarh. Further, in event of administrative exigencies, petitioners to be adjusted, transferred, deployed, or temporarily lodged in any district falling within the TSP areas, as maybe required from time to time. Accordingly, the petition was disposed of. Title: Nakul Patidar & Ors. v the State of Rajasthan & Ors. Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 394Click Here To Read/Download Order

Recruitment Advertised For Tribal Areas Creates Legitimate Expectation; State Can't Post Candidate Elsewhere Sans Reasons: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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