Courts Cannot Direct A Particular Method Of Recruitment Or Eligibility Criteria: Allahabad HC Upholds IIT Kanpur Recruitment Rules For Executive Engineer Post

The Allahabad High Court upheld the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kanpur’s Recruitment Rules for the post of Executive Engineer.

The Court was dealing with a Special Appeal against the judgment of the Single Judge by which the writ petition of a candidate was dismissed.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Anish Kumar Gupta observed, “Prescription of qualifications and other conditions of service pertains to the field of policy and is within the exclusive discretion and jurisdiction of the authority. It is not open to the Courts to direct the authority to have a particular method of recruitment or eligibility criteria."

The Bench said that the matter is not fit to take a judicial review of the qualification prescribed by the employer/IIT, Kanpur under direct recruitment.

Advocate Avneesh Tripathi appeared for the appellant while Advocate Rohan Gupta appeared for the respondents.

Brief Facts -

Initially, the appellant was appointed as a Junior Engineer (Trainee) in IIT Kanpur in 1988 on a temporary and ad hoc basis for a period of two years. In 1991, the employer (IIT Kanpur) published an advertisement for the appointment on the post of Junior Engineer and finally the appellant was selected for the same. Thereafter, he was duly selected on the post of Assistant Engineer on a regular basis and later, was promoted to the post of Senior Assistant Engineer. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors (BOD) approved the Recruitment and Promotion Rules in respect of non-academic staff. The employer decided to adopt and implement the said Rules as per procedures approved by the Board.

Thereafter, the promotion policy was notified and the appellant claimed that his right to promotion got affected by the new policy and as such, he represented the matter before the employer in 2019. The same was examined by the Institute Level Grievance Redressal Committee wherein it was found that there is no merit in the appellant’s claim. Hence, he was advised to apply for the promotion as and when the post be advertised, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria. However, when the employer published an ad inviting applications for the Executive Engineer post, the essential qualification for the same was changed due to which the appellant became ineligible. Being aggrieved, the appellant approached the High Court, but the Single Judge rejected his petitioner and hence, he filed an appeal before the Division Bench.

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel noted, “The present matter relates to the premier institution of the country. The suitability for the job, for which the selection and appointment is to be made, is an area of technical experts of the field and generally the Court does not inhere such expertise and skills to assess the exact suitability and eligibility vis-a-vis selection & appointment had to be made. Generally, the Court cannot embark upon any enquiry by way of judicial review to prescribe, which qualifications would be better qualification for the employer to provide as an essential qualification for the post upon which the selection and appointment has to be made.”

The Court added that the prescription of qualifications and other conditions of service pertains to the field of policy and is within the exclusive discretion and jurisdiction of the authority and it is not open to the Courts to direct the authority to have a particular method of recruitment or eligibility criteria.

“… in absence of serious challenge to the Rules, 2018 and the Board of Governor’s resolution dated 23.12.2022, we find that learned Single Judge has not erred in law to appreciate the belated attempt. … While considering the facts and law as elucidated above and relevant Rules/Regulations, which have been brought on record by the contesting respondents through the counter affidavit before learned Single Judge, we are of the opinion, that for the reason best known to the appellant-petitioner, there was no such challenge to the Rules/Regulations, which were duly adopted and enacted by the Competent Authority, therefore, the consequential recruitment process which was adopted by the employer/IIT Kanpur, cannot be held to be an arbitrary exercise which may warrant any interference in the intra court appeal”, it said.

The Court, therefore, concluded that there is no infirmity in the recruitment process adopted by the employer/IIT Kanpur.

Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the special appeal and upheld the Recruitment Rules.

Cause Title- Ram Pratap Singh v. Union of India and 4 others (Neutral Citation: 2024:AHC:94201-DB)

Click here to read/download the Judgment