Legal tangle in recruitment
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 07, 2024 -

BRINGING a finality to one of the longest legal battles over the recruitment of primary teachers in Manipur, the Supreme Court of India recently upheld not only a judgement passed by the High Court of Manipur way back in 2015 but also-directed the state government and its authority to prepare a revised selection list in accordance with the recruitment notification issued for the first time in 2006.

The final judgment on the case of Khunjamayum Bimoti Devi v. State of Manipur & Others passed on September 19 last essentially means limiting the number of appointments to the originally notified or advertised 1,423 post vacancies and excluding the 242 OBC category candidates, who were wrongfully included later on midway through the recruitment process by issuing an Office Memorandum (OM) to establish promulgation of OBC reservations only on December 27, 2006.

Apart from mandating preparation of the revised selection list within four weeks and the subsequent issuance of appointment orders, the apex court of the country also granted limited relief to those who had already been nominated and are acting as teachers.

While leaving it to the state government's discretion to take a decision on whether to retain those who are serving as teachers and whose names may not figure in the revised select list, in pursuant to the ordered exercise, a three-judge bench comprising justices Hrishikesh Roy, Sudhanshu Dhulia and SVN Bhatti had observed, "We do appreciate that the concerned appointees have been serving for over 13 years and disruption of their service may lead to unimaginable hardships for this group of people."

Thus, one could say in a way that it is fair judgement, which is not just an indictment of the wrongdoings done by the state government and its related authority in carrying out recruitment of primary teachers in the past but a lesson to be learnt and kept in mind while carrying out any recruitment in the days to come.

This judgement may have brought closure to a recruitment process that began over 18 years ago, but it has also shed light on many issues that are inherently related to the "flawed" recruitment processes carried out by the Government of Manipur.

There is no gainsaying that many of the recruitment processes carried out by the Government of Manipur in the past were mired in controversies with allegations of irregularities, favouritism and corruption, and as a result, they invariably land in the law court for settlements.

In the instant case too, it is the modification of recruitment rules midway through the process to give unfair preferential treatment to some people at the expense of other deserving candidates that had attracted legal scrutiny.

It's no wonder, in passing the final judgment on the case of Khunjamayum Bimoti Devi v. State of Manipur & Others, the apex court had referred to the decision in the Madan Mohan Sharma vs. State of Rajasthan (AIR 2008 SC 1657), which established that the criteria of a recruitment advertisement cannot be modified after it has been published in accordance with the current regulations.

Thus, the apex court has taken cognisance of the fact that the Review DPC had inadvertently implemented the OBC reservation without a formal modification to the original notice, and that the State government had acted capriciously in endorsing the Review DPC's recommendation.

Another important issue that the apex court has taken serious note of and agreed with the petitioners in the instant case is the disposal of answer scripts by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BSEM), citing space restrictions, before completion of the entire recruitment process.

As the apex court had pointed out, the state government should think of "a more prudent strategy" to keep the answer scripts of every recruitment conducted until the end of the whole selection process, including appointments.

This would not only ensure transparency and accountability, but also avoid facing embarrassment in case of legal tangle.