New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that a full court resolution cannot override statutory rules, directing the Manipur High Court to appoint a Dalit candidate to the District Judge role despite the candidate being disqualified for not meeting a newly imposed 40 percent interview cut-off.
The bench, consisting of Justices Hrishikesh Roy, Sudhanshu Dhulia, and S.V.N. Bhatti, found that the Manipur High Court’s 2015 resolution to set a 40 percent minimum cut-off for interviews was invalid since it was not supported by an amendment to the Manipur Judicial Services Rules, 2005.
The Court clarified that executive resolutions cannot alter statutory rules, especially when the method of selection is specified by combining scores from written and viva voce exams. The bench observed that the High Court’s deviation from the rules breached the petitioners’ legitimate expectations and failed to uphold the principles of fairness and consistency as required by Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
The case stemmed from a petition by Salam Samarjeet Singh, who contested the failure to adhere to the unamended rules for selecting candidates based on aggregate exam marks. The Court acknowledged that while setting a minimum cut-off may not be inherently unreasonable, it must be legally grounded and implemented through proper amendments to the rules, rather than through a resolution.
