STATE OF WEST BENGAL Vs. SARITA TIWARI (PANDEY)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The five Judges' Bench in Secretary, State of Karnataka and Ors. Vs. Umadevi and Ors. reported in 2006 (4) SCC 1 is a landmark case for guidelines to be followed in the matter of public employment.

(2.) The opinion of the court is loud and clear that public posts should be filled up by a transparent widely advertised selection process against sanctioned and vacant posts and that there should not be entry into the said posts otherwise. Recruitments de hors the above norms were put into two categories "illegal" and "irregular". If an appointment was irregular but not plainly illegal, the appointment was made against vacant sanctioned vacant posts with some incidents of formality and the appointee had worked uninterruptedly for a considerable length of time, his or her case for regularisation demanded consideration.

(3.) Now, what kind of appointments could be termed as "irregular appointments" was not exactly defined. The courts have interpreted this expression in different ways and applied the law to different set of facts, accordingly.