28 Years After Applying, Man To Get Job In Postal Dept At 50 Years Age Due To Supreme Court's Order

In an interesting case, the Supreme Court recently directed the Postal Department to appoint a man, presently aged 50 years, to the post of Postal Assistant for which he applied in the year 1995. This was after the Supreme Court found that the Department was in error in holding the man ineligible for the post. Though the man, named Ankur Gupta, was placed in the merit list of candidates for the post and was selected for pre-induction training, he was later excluded. The reason for the exclusion was that he completed 10+2 education from the "vocational stream".He and other similarly affected candidates approached the Central Administrative Tribunal in 1996, which ruled in their favour in 1999. Challenging the CAT's order, the Department approached the High Court in 2000. Seventeen years later, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the petition, and upheld the CAT's order. A review as also filed in the High Court which also got dismissed in 2021, following which the Department approached the Supreme Court.A bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Dipankar Datta, while dismissing the Department's petition, observed that though a candidate cannot claim a vested right to appointment, once he is included in the merit list, he has a limited right of being accorded a fair treatment. “Once a candidate is declared ineligible to participate in the selection process at the threshold and if he still wishes to participate in the process perceiving that his candidature has been arbitrarily rejected, it is for him to work out his remedy in accordance with law. However, if the candidature is not rejected at the threshold and the candidate is allowed to participate in the selection process and ultimately his name figures in the merit list though such candidate has no indefeasible right to claim appointment, he does have a limited right of being accorded fair and non-discriminatory treatment.”Here, the Court noted that the candidate was not rejected at the threshold. Instead, the Department had considered the respondent eligible, allowed him to take part in the various tests in connection with the selection process, interviewed him, placed his name quite high in the merit list, and thereafter sent him for 15 days' pre-induction training. It was after these processes that he was shown the door.In this backdrop, the Court said :“The employer, if it is a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, would have no authority to act in an arbitrary manner and throw the candidate out from the range of appointment, as distinguished from the zone of consideration, without rhyme or reason. The employer-State being bound by Article 14 of the Constitution, the law places an obligation, nay duty, on such an employer to provide some justification by way of reason.”Factual Background The Department of Posts (Postal Assistants and Sorting Assistants) Recruitment Rules, 1990 was amended vide a Notification dated 31st January, 1992. The Schedule to the 1990 Rules outlined the educational qualifications required for the post of Postal Assistants and Sorting Assistants for direct recruits as “10+2 standard or 12th class pass of recognised University/ Board of School Education/Board of Secondary Education”. However, after the amendment, candidates who had pursued their intermediate education in “vocational stream” were excluded from being considered for the aforementioned post.This being the position of the recruitment rules, the Superintendent of Post Office, Kheri through a letter dated 17th April, 1995 requisitioned from the District Employment Officer, Lakhimpur Kheri a list of eligible candidates for the purpose of recruitment of 10 (ten) Postal Assistants in Lakhimpur Kheri postal division for the year 1995. According to the requisition, the candidates were required to have qualified in the intermediate examination from the Uttar Pradesh Intermediate Education Council, Allahabad or equivalent. Apart from such requisition, applications were also invited through an advertisement dated 12th June 1995.All the respondents herein, among other candidates, went through the selection process. A merit list was notified, and the names of the respondents figured quite high in the merit list, following which all of them were attached to the Kheri Post Office for 15 days pre-induction training. The same was to be followed by a long-term training. The origin of what triggered this present litigation arose when the Chief Postmaster General sent a letter dated 22nd March 1996 to various Postmasters General and it was conveyed that certificates issued by the Board of High School and Intermediate Education should be admitted unless “these are marked as vocational stream or vocational.” This resulted in holding back of the respondents, who were not sent for long-term training.By the time the matter reached the Supreme Court, the other candidates lost interest in the service and the case was related only to the appointment of the 3rd...

28 Years After Applying, Man To Get Job In Postal Dept At 50 Years Age Due To Supreme Court's Order

Gyanvi Khanna

"If the candidature is not rejected at the threshold and the candidate is allowed to participate in the selection process, he does have a limited right of being accorded fair treatment," Court held.

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