Punjab Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 2020 – Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination, 2020 – Advertisement dated 11.12.2020 was issued following the 2020 Rules thus, DSP post in question was reserved for ‘SC Sports (Woman)’ – 2020 Rules amended, roster introduced – Private respondent had stood 1st amongst males, while the appellant was 1st amongst females, under the ‘SC Sports’ category – Writ Petition filed by the private respondent challenging the advertisement, only to the extent that it reserved the DSP post under the ‘SC Sports’ category for women in violation of the roster introduced, and for his appointment as DSP against the ‘SC Sports’ seat – Writ Petition dismissed by Single Judge – Division Bench remanded the matter to Single Judge – Challenge to:
Held: ‘Rules of the game’ cannot be tinkered with once the recruitment process commences – Once an eligibility criteria was declared by means of a fresh Advertisement i.e. Advertisement 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’ – Post 11.12.2020 no change could have been made – The crucial date in the present case is the advertisement dated 11.12.2020 which 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 – Private respondent cannot be appointed to this post – Petitioner as well as the private respondent were selected against their respective categories – The advertisement dated 11.12.2020 (in its entirety) or the 2020 Rules were never challenged – Respondents now cannot cry foul referring to an event post 11.12.2020 where the so called roster system came into existence – Impugned order set aside, order of Single Judge upheld. [Paras 20-22, 24, 25]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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