Carrying forward vacant posts waste of time, says Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, January 24

In a significant judgment liable to change the way public appointments are made, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that carrying forward the vacant posts to next recruitment process despite the availability of eligible candidates would waste the state’s precious time and energy and prejudice candidates unsuccessful following a minuscule margin.

The ruling by Justice Jagmohan Bansal came in a case where an advertisement for filling 267 posts of Sub-Inspector provided that “there would be no waiting list and unfilled vacancies shall be carried forward in the respective reservation category to the next recruitment process”.

Justice Bansal asserted the selection process commenced from the advertisement and completed on the joining of candidates. It was well-known that every selection process took quite a long time. There were always possibilities, especially in the armed forces, that a few candidates at the stage of medical examination were found unfit.

Justice Bansal added the selection of same candidate against more than one post was also a possibility. In such circumstances, the posts might fall vacant. “If these posts are carried forward despite availability of eligible candidates, it would waste valuable time and energy of the state”.

Justice Bansal was hearing a bunch of petitions seeking directions for setting aside the provisional list dated May 25, 2023, of candidates selected for the posts of Sub-Inspector in technical and support services cadre-2021.

Justice Bansal observed the petitioners belonged to the reserved category, primarily SC. As per the advertisement, 27 seats were reserved for the category, but 17 were filled. The petitioners participated in the selection process, but were not selected because of convoluted mechanism adopted by the state.