Can't punish candidates for no lapse or fault, SC orders UP govt to appoint female health workers

The SC bench also directed the Uttar Pradesh govt to appoint a group of females to the post of health workers

The Supreme Court has ruled that a candidate for a job cannot be punished once it is found that there was no lapse or delay on their part in not producing the no objection certificate at the relevant time.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and Hima Kohli directed the Uttar Pradesh government to appoint a group of females to the post of health workers, if they are otherwise eligible, as applications were rejected since they failed to produce the no objection certificate on time.

The court allowed an appeal filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava on behalf of Kumari Laxmi Saroj and others against the Allahabad High Court's judgement of July 13, 2022.

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The candidature of appellants, registered with the Madhya Pradesh Nurses and Midwife Council, was rejected in view of delay in producing the UP Council registration, even though they had appeared in online examinations.

The appellants approached the High Court, citing the judgement in case of Narender Singh Vs State of Haryana and Ors (2022). However, the HC said the directions issued by the top court in that case were in exercise of powers under Article 142 (extraordinary power of the SC to do complete justice) of the Constitution of India.

This "is a misreading and/or misinterpreting of the judgment of this court. This court has specifically laid down the law that if it is found that there is no lapse/delay on the part of the applicant, he cannot be punished for no fault attributable to him," the bench said.

The top court directed the UP government to appoint the appellants to the post of Health Worker (Female) within a period of six weeks, if otherwise, they are found meritorious and fulfilling the other eligibility criteria. However, it made clear that the appellants would be entitled to all the benefits from the date of their actual appointments.