No legal right with candidate on mere application for job

New Delhi: A candidate who has applied for a job does not have a legal right to insist that the recruitment process set in motion be carried to its logical end, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy said that even the inclusion of a candidate in the select list may not provide the candidate with such a right. "The cardinal principle we must bear in mind is that this is a case of direct recruitment.

A candidate who has applied does not have a legal right to insist that the recruitment process set in motion be carried to its logical end. Even inclusion of a candidate in the select list may not clothe the candidate with such a right," the bench said.

The observations came while deciding a case in which advertisements were issued on March 1, 2018, inviting online applications to fill up among other posts, the post of Associate Professor for the colleges run by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation. On March 21, 2018, a notice was issued to keep the recruitment process in abeyance in regard to the post of Associate Professor and Professor for administrative reasons.

One of the applicants approached the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking directions to fill up the post of Associate Professor in terms of advertisement and the tribunal passed an order in his favour.