Case Note & Summary
The dispute originated from a recruitment selection process initiated by the Uttar Pradesh government following a Supreme Court order in State of U.P. v. Shiv Kumar Pathak, which granted liberty to fill vacancies after fresh advertisement. The petitioners, who were not parties to the original litigation, filed a review petition challenging the selection of 95 candidates allegedly not meeting the prescribed percentage criteria of 60% for reserved category and 70% for unreserved category as per interim court orders. The procedural history shows that after the Supreme Court dismissed Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 11323 of 2021 on 26.07.2021, Miscellaneous Application No. 1391 of 2021 was rejected on 9.9.2021, and Review Petition (Civil) No. 32 of 2022 was rejected on 11.1.2022. The core legal issues involved whether non-parties could file a review petition and whether the selection process violated prescribed criteria. The petitioners argued that the selection undertaken pursuant to the earlier Notification dated 07.12.2012 should have been completed and that fees should be refunded, while also raising the specific grievance about the 95 candidates. The court analyzed the grounds raised in the review petition and found no merit in the substantive submissions. The court reasoned that the controversy had been considered on three previous occasions and saw no justification to grant permission to non-parties to file a fresh review petition. The court dismissed the review petition, closing the matter without entertaining the grounds regarding selection criteria violations.
Headnote
A) Civil Procedure - Review Petition - Locus Standi of Non-Parties - Supreme Court Rules, Order XLVII - Non-parties to original litigation sought permission to file review petition challenging selection process - Court refused permission, emphasizing that controversy had already been considered on multiple occasions - Held that no reason exists to grant permission to non-parties to file review petition (Paras 2-3). B) Constitutional Law - Public Employment - Selection Criteria Compliance - Uttar Pradesh Government Recruitment - Petitioners alleged 95 candidates were wrongly selected for not meeting prescribed percentage criteria - Court examined grounds and found no merit to justify interference - Held that review petition raises no substantive grounds warranting interference (Para 2).
Issue of Consideration
Whether the review petition filed by non-parties to the original litigation should be entertained and whether there is merit in the grounds raised regarding selection criteria violations
Final Decision
Review petition dismissed and closed, permission to file review petition refused
Law Points
- Review petition jurisdiction
- principles of finality in litigation
- locus standi of non-parties to file review petitions
- adherence to selection criteria in recruitment processes
