The three-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, therefore, ruled that recruitment to sanctioned posts, consistent with principles of equal opportunity recruitment, cannot be substituted by absorption of part-time workers.
“LIC as a statutory corporation is bound by the mandate of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As a public employer, the recruitment process of the corporation must meet the constitutional standard of a fair and open process. Allowing for back-door entries into service is an anathema to public service,” the Court observed.
The Court, therefore, declined to direct the LIC to absorb 11,000 part-time workers without an open and competitive process.
“LIC having been restrained by judicial orders from pursuing an open recruitment process, the situation which has now arisen is that unless a balance were to be drawn, absorption of part-time and badli workers would become a substitute for a recruitment process based on sanctioned posts, consistent with the principles of reservation and pursued on the basis of a structured recruitment which gives equal opportunities to all applicants. Such a consequence is a serious detriment to constitutional parameters and to the duty of LIC as a public employer to follow a process which is fair and in consonance with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution“, the Supreme Court said in its judgement.
Source: Barandbench
