The main legal point established in the judgment is that a candidate who fails in a selection process cannot challenge the process unless there are violations of natural justice, flouting of selection rules, or mala fide, bias, or prejudice.

(Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE I. A. ANSARI)

Whether an authority, holding and/or conducting a selection process, is wholly debarred from cancelling the selection process or the select list? Whether a selectee, in the select list, has an indefeasible right to challenge, in a Court of competent jurisdiction, the cancellation of select list even when cancellation of select list by the authority, holding or conducting a selection process, is reasonable and/or non-arbitrary? Can a candidate, who has participated in a selection process and does not figure in the select list, never challenge the select list on the principal that a candidate, having participated in a selection process and failed, cannot turn back and challenge the selection process or whether such a candidate can challenge process of selection or the select list if the selection process suffers from violation of the relevant rules of recruitment, or suffers from mala fide, bias or prejudice? These are, broadly speaking, some of questions, which the present set of three writ petitions, made under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, have raised.

2. While the writ petition filed by the Union of India and its functionaries have given rise to CWJC NO. 21948 of 2013, the two writ petitions filed by those, who had participated in the selection process, in question, and failed, have given rise to CWJC Nos. 20417 of 2012 and 20460 of 2013.

3. What gave rise to the present set of writ petitions may, in brief, be set out as under:

4. The writ petitioners, in the two writ petitions, namely, C.W.J.C. Nos.20417 of 2013 and 20460 of 2013, are Group ‘C’ employees of the Railways and posted in the offices of Accounts Department, at different places, under East Central Railway.

5. The vacancies, in Group-B posts of Assistant Financial Advisers (in short, ‘AFAs’), are to be filled up, on promotion, on the basis of eligible Group-C employees and also on the basis of limited departmental competitive examination (in short, ‘LDCE’). Where scheme of LDCE is in force, selection is required to be held to fill up 70 per cent of vacancies and LDCE is required to be held to fill up remaining 30 per cent of vacancies.

6. In order to fill up 70 per cent of the vacancies, in the posts of AFAs, for the year 2010-12, notification, dated 08.01.2013, was issued by the competent authority. In terms of the notification, dated 08.01.2013, aforementioned, the competent authority had accorded approval to fill up 23 posts of AFAs and ADFMs, the break up of these posts being 15 unreserved, 05 reserved for Schedule Castes (in short, ‘SC’) and 03 reserved for Schedule Tribes (in short, ‘ST’). The scheduled date of written test was fixed on 09.03.2013 and names of the short-listed candidates, numbering 50+1 (from extended zone), eligible to appear in the selection process, contained in Annexure-A, was published. Another list of 23 candidates, contained in Annexure-B, was also published as the list of stand-by candidates.

7. In terms of the consolidated instructions, issued by the competent authority, governing promotion from Group-C to Group-B, zone of consideration for making selection in the quota of 70 per cent vacancies ? whenever vacancies are 4 or more ? extends to 3 (three) times the number of vacancies. However, if SC or ST candidates are not available for consideration against reserved vacancies, the field of selection, in respect of SC/ST employees, may be extended to 5 (five) times the number of vacancies reserved for SC/ST candidates subject to the condition that only SC/ST employees and no others can be considered within such extended field. The petitioners, in CWJC Nos. 20417 of 2013 and 20460 of 2013, figured in the list of candidates, who were eligible to participate in the selection process.

8. Though the written test was, as indicated hereinbefore, scheduled to be held on 09.03.2013, a letter, dated 12.02.2013, issued by the Secretary to the F.A. and C.A.O., brought out a revised list