Reservation Notified In Advertisement Cannot Be Cancelled By Subsequent Roster Change : Supreme Court

Reiterating that the 'rules of the game' cannot be changed midway, the Supreme Court recently allowed the plea of a woman whose selection to the post of f Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), being reserved for SC Sports (Women), was changed under a roster which came in to effect after releasing of the recruitment advertisement.

The bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran heard the case where the Appellant-candidate had applied for the post of DSP based on the original advertisement dated 11.12.2020 which reserved one DSP post for "SC Sports (Women)”.

The Appellant topped the exam in the SC Sports (Women) category, but her selection was challenged on the ground that subsequent amendments made to the Punjab Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 2020 (“2020 Rules”) had introduced a roster system dated 29.01.2021 which didn't reserve the DSP post for SC Sports (Women).

The respondent challenged the women's reservation on one DSP Post, arguing the DSP post should not have been reserved for women under the newly introduced roster via an amendment made to the 2020 Rules subsequent to the date of advertisement.

The Punjab & Haryana High Court's single bench decided in the Appellant's favor; however, the Division Bench remanded the matter for reconsideration by the Single Bench upon the Respondent's Letters Patent Appeal prompting the Appellant to approach the Supreme Court.

Before the Supreme Court, placing reliance on K. Manjusree v. State of A.P. (2008) and Tej Prakash Pathak v. Rajasthan High Court (2025), which prohibited mid-way changes of rules, the Appellant argued that the recruitment process should be governed by the original advertisement dated 11.12.2020, which reserved one DSP post for SC Sports (Women).

Whereas, the Respondent, who topped the exam in the male category, supporting the Division Bench's decision contended that the roster should be given retrospective operation and the captioned post should not be reserved for the woman.

Setting aside the Division bench's decision, the judgment authored by Justice Dhulia observed that since the roster was notified after the recruitment advertisement therefore changes post-advertisement cannot retrospectively alter recruitment terms fixed under the original advertisement.

In other words, the Court said that the recruitment processes are governed by rules existing at their commencement.

“We are in agreement with the findings of the learned Single Judge for the reason that once an eligibility criteria was declared by means of a fresh Advertisement i.e. Advertisement No. 14 dated 11.12.2020, the same cannot be changed midway through the recruitment process, as the same would tantamount to 'changing the rules of the game, after the game is played' as held by this Court in K. Manjusree v. State of A.P., (2008) 3 SCC 512.”, the court observed.

“The crucial date in the present case is the advertisement dated 11.12.2020. This advertisement follows the 2020 Rules where 33% of reservation was to be made for women on every government post. Thus, DSP SC Sports was reserved for women. This was mentioned in the advertisement dated 11.12.2020. This advertisement or the 2020 Rules were never challenged. The respondents now cannot cry foul referring to an event post 11.12.2020 where the so called roster system came into existence. We have not even considered the need to examine the legality of this roster in principle. Sufficient will it be for our purpose to hold that post 11.12.2020 no change could have been made.”, the Court added.

Accordingly, the Court allowed the appeal.

Case Title: PRABHJOT KAUR Versus STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 425

Click here to read/download the judgment

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) :Mr. P.S. Patwalia, Sr. Adv. Mr. Anurag Kulharia, Adv. Mr. Sumit Kumar Sharma, Adv. Dr. Navya Jannu, Adv. Ms. Aakriti Jain, AOR

For Respondent(s) : Mr. Gurminder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gurnoor S. Sandhu, Adv. Mr. Virendra Singh, Adv. Ms. Lara Siddiqui, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Kaushik, Adv. Dr. Abhay Kant Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Rajat Bhardwaj, A.A.G. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Raj Kishor Choudhary, AOR Mr. Dhruv Kaushik, Adv. Ms. Pratibha Singh, Adv.