A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said that favouritism and nepotism should have no role in appointments to government jobs and deprecated the “uncle culture prevalent” in India when it comes to subjective assessment process like interviews.
“The Indian psyche is such that the subjective part of the assessment, more often than not, is tainted, influenced or guided by nepotism or the usual uncle culture or even more disagreeable extraneous considerations,” the Court said.
This was after noting that the petitioner in the case, who had scored more in practical examination which tested driving skills, had lost after scoring lesser marks in the interview in comparison to other candidates.
The Court emphasised that the overwhelming message conveyed by fundamental rights under the Constitution is that in the selection process pertaining to employment or appointment, irrelevant considerations must not come into play.
“But just as religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence are to be kept out of the consideration, favouritism and nepotism would also have no role to play in the process of selection,” the division bench underscored.
Source: Barandbench
