Eligibility Conditions Can Not Be Relaxed For A Post Without Wide Publicity: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 7602 of 2023 heard a batch of appeals concerning relaxation of prescribed eligibility qualifications by the State Government in recruitment to the post of Junior Office Assistant. The court noted that unless otherwise provided in the applicable rules or advertisement issued thereunder, the eligibility criteria must be fulfilled by the candidate within the last date of receipt of applications as specified in the advertisement. Moreover, it is noted that settled law dictates that if the existing rules allow for the relaxation of eligibility criteria, such authority can be exercised only if such power is explicitly reserved in the advertisement. If the power of relaxation is to be exercised, wide publicity must be provided to ensure that people who are likely to benefit from it can get an opportunity to apply and compete. As the advertisement in the instant case did not reflect power to relax eligibility criteria in the instant case, the court held that the State was in the wrong.