Admission to govt college can't guarantee right to appointment: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said the admission to government colleges does not automatically guarantee a right to get an appointment in absence of disclaimer in advertisement as it declined a plea by candidates who passed out from a government college for appointment as Ayurvedic staff nurse.

A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan noted the change in government policy and scheme, and the permission to several private colleges to run the course to reject the contention of legitimate expectation.

"It may be far-fetched to apply the principle of legitimate expectation to the case in hand as there was a change in policy and scheme of government," the bench said.

Allowing a plea by the Uttar Pradesh government against the Allahabad High Court's January 17, 2025 judgment, the bench said, the past practice was merely on the basis of the situation at the relevant time when there were only 20 seats for imparting education for Ayurvedic nursing training Course and only one government institution was authorised to conduct the course. Since there were more vacancies, most of them may have been adjusted. 

In a judgment on January 8, 2026, Justice Bindal for the bench said, "There is no violation of Article 14 as, in the facts of this case, it cannot be opined that there was any discrimination against the respondents or that the action of the State was arbitrary. The essence of discrimination is the unequal treatment of equals; however, the State has clearly established that no appointments were made under the old system for any candidate admitted after the 2010-11 session."

The state was aggrieved with the High Court's direction to consider the appointment. It submitted the issue of legitimate expectation will not be applicable here as the process of selection changed later on and 15 additional private colleges were imparting similar training programmes.

The court noted, the Uttar Pradesh Ayush Department (Ayurved) Nursing Service Rules, 2021 governing the post were framed in the year 2021. The process of selection underwent change as well, as earlier the selection was being made by UP Public Service Commission, now it was being made by Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission.