Service Law – Selection – To the post of Police Sub Inspector – State of Maharashtra had issued the impugned G.R. without any consultation or prior approval by Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) – The impugned G.R. sought to fill up double the number of vacancies notified for Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LCDE) – OAs filed challenging the policy decision contained in the impugned G.R. – Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal by interim order directed that status quo be maintained with respect to 636 additional candidates whose list was appended to the G.R. – Held: It is well settled in service jurisprudence that the authority cannot fill up more than the notified number of vacancies advertised, as the recruitment of candidates in excess of the notified vacancies, would be violative of Arts.14 and 16 (1) of the Constitution – Tribunal vacated the order of status quo, on the ground that two of the applicants had participated in the examination, but failed to qualify – This could not be a justifiable ground to vacate the interim order, since promotional prospects of the applicants/petitioners would be seriously prejudiced, as a block of 636 additional candidates would be appointed as Police SubInspectors over and above the applicants – The other ground on which the Tribunal vacated the interim order was that the applicants had not challenged the G.R. – This is an erroneous observation which would be evident from the prayers in the O.A.– The third ground on which the Tribunal vacated the interim order was that in similar O.As challenging the same G.R, the applicants in those cases had withdrawn their respective cases, since they were desirous of pursuing their representations with the State Government – This could also not be a justifiable ground for vacating the order of status quo merely because other parties had chosen to withdraw their O.A. for their own reasons – High Court in writ petition has issued a direction to the State to send the additional list of 636 candidates for training of 9 months during the pendency of proceedings before the Tribunal – Such a direction ought not to have been passed in writ petition – Direction now passed by Supreme Court that the impugned G.R. will remain stayed during pendency of proceedings before the Tribunal – Tribunal to decide the pending O.A. within six months while ensuring that the additional 636 candidates are given notice of the pending O.A. through the State, to enable them to appear and participate in the proceedings – Tribunal further directed to club all pending Original Applications challenging the impugned G.R. and pass a common judgment in these cases – Police Sub-Inspector (Recruitment) Rules, 1995 – r.5 – Constitution of India – Art.320(3)(a).
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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