Supreme Court sets aside Bihar government's decision to annul selection process of junior engineers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday described as "impermissible" the Bihar government's decision to scrap the 2019 selection process for the appointment of over 6,000 junior engineers in the state's water resources department.

A bench comprising Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said scrapping the entire selection process after its completion "amounts to effectively changing the rules of the game after the game was played, which is impermissible".

It directed the Bihar Technical Service Commission (BTSC) to proceed with the appointment process according to the fresh select list submitted by them before the Patna High Court.

"The Fresh Select List be prepared in view of order dated April 19, 2022, passed by the High Court and the fresh select list shall also include as far as possible those meritorious candidates who were otherwise eligible but were declared ineligible solely on account of the 2017 amendment to the Rules i.e. on account of their institute not being recognised by the AICTE, and all similarly placed successful candidates," the bench ordered.

It directed the BTSC to prepare the revised select list of successful candidates within three months and ordered the state government to appoint them within 30 days thereafter.

The judgement came on an appeal against the Patna High Court verdict which had closed the pending cases against the appointment process after taking note of the state's decision that it has cancelled the selection process. The high court was hearing the petitions challenging the validity of one of the rules of the Bihar Water Resources Department Subordinate Engineering (Civil) Cadre Recruitment (Amendment) Rules 2017. The rule prescribed technical qualification eligibility for selection and appointment to the post in Bihar.

An advertisement was issued by the BTSC in March 2019 inviting applications for 6,379 vacancies to the post of Junior Engineer across various state departments.

The rules prescribed that the candidate should have a Diploma in Civil Engineering conferred by the Technical Educational Council/University concerned recognised by the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

Some of the candidates had moved the high court against the rejection of their application as they had taken the requisite diploma from private universities which were not approved by the AICTE.

The high court had entertained the plea and permitted the BTSC to continue with the selection process. It had said the final selection process would be subject to the final outcome.

On April 02, 2022, the BTSC published its selection list for the posts advertised and allotted departments to successful candidates. Later, the Bihar government convened a meeting of secretaries from different departments and decided to annul the entire selection process.

The high court permitted the state government to implement its decision of annulling the selection process and disposed of the pending petitions.

"Presently, despite the preparation of the Final Select List which signals the conclusion of the appointment process, the state government seeks to scrap the entire process and undertake a fresh appointment process under the new rules.

"In the considered opinion of this court, this amounts to effectively changing the rules of the game after the game was played which is impermissible and deprives the candidates of their legitimate right of consideration under the previous rules," the apex court held.

It also rapped the high court for "abruptly" closing the proceedings without assigning reasons.

"Therefore, in light of the aforenoted position, the state action of scrapping the entire selection process is not permissible," the top court held.