Service Matters -Vacancies- An authority cannot fill up more than the notified number of vacancies advertised -Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana.

Parties  Ashish Chopra v. High Court of Punjab and Haryana
Case details, CWP No. 8598 of 2022 (O&M). D/d. 19.05.2022.

Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana has held that An authority cannot fill up more than the notified number of vacancies advertised as recruitment of candidates in excess of the notified vacancies would be violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India while referring to Judgement of Hon'ble Supreme Court in High Court of Kerala v. Reshma A. and others, 2021 (1) SCT 311. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the said case has held as under:-

"45. The constitutional principle which finds recognition in the precedents of this Court is that the process of selection in making appointments to public posts is subject to the guarantees of equality under Article 14 and of equality in matters of public employment under Article 16. The process of selection must comport with the principles of reasonableness. Where the authority which makes a selection advertises a specific number of posts, the process of selection cannot ordinarily exceed the number of posts which have been advertised. While notifying a process for appointment, the authority may take into consideration the actual and anticipated vacancies but not future vacancies. Anticipated vacancies are the vacancies which can be reasonably contemplated to arise due to the normal exigencies of service such as promotion, resignation or death. Hence, in notifying a given number of posts for appointment, the public authority may legitimately take into account the number PART H of vacancies which exist on the date of the notification and vacancies which can reasonably be accepted to arise in the exigencies of the service. While the exact number of posts which may fall vacant due to circumstances such as promotion, resignation or death may be difficult to precisely determine the authority may make a reasonable assessment of the expected number of vacancies on these grounds. However, future vacancies conceptually fall in a distinct class or category. Future vacancies which arise during a subsequent recruitment year cannot be treated as anticipated vacancies of a previous selection year. Vacancies which would arise outside the fold of the recruitment year would not fall within the ambit of anticipated vacancies. For it is only the vacancies, actual and anticipated which would fall within the course of the selection or recruitment year that can be notified when the selection process is initiated. These are constitutional principles to which statutory edicts are subordinate."

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