Recruitment process would be meaningless without timeline: SC

New Delhi: The recruitment process undertaken by a competent authority would be meaningless without a timeline, the Supreme Court has said while setting aside the orders passed by the Allahabad High Court in a matter about the recruitment of police constables to the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in Uttar Pradesh.

The apex court allowed the appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and others against the August 2019 order passed by a division bench of the high court which had upheld an order of the single judge.

The single judge had directed the authorities to permit the petitioner, who was one of the candidates in the recruitment process, to appear for document verification and physical fitness test for the post of constable in pursuance to the recruitment advertised in the year 2015.

In any event, though indulgence was shown in the earlier cases, a line has to be drawn at some stage as otherwise, the recruitment process undertaken by the competent authorities would be meaningless without a timeline and the next recruitment process will also get effected since the determination of the number of vacancies for the next process will keep fluctuating, a bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna said.

The apex court noted in its judgement that the recruitment process had commenced in 2015 and document verification along with physical fitness test was held in 2018.

Several candidates who were permitted pursuant to the order of the high court had taken part in early January 2019.