State Of Haryana vs Subash Chander Marwaha And Ors on 2 May, 1973
"7. It is not correct to say that if a number of vacancies are
notified for appointment and adequate number of
candidates are found fit, the successful candidates acquire
an indefeasible right to be appointed which cannot be
legitimately denied. Ordinarily the notification merely
amounts to an invitation to qualified candidates to apply for
recruitment and on their selection they do not acquire any
right to the post. Unless the relevant recruitment rules so
indicate, the State is under no legal duty to fill up all or any
of the vacancies. However, it does not mean that the State
has the licence of acting in an arbitrary manner. The
decision not to fill up the vacancies has to be taken bona
fide for appropriate reasons. And if the vacancies or any of
them are filled up, the State is bound to respect the
comparative merit of the candidates, as reflected at the
recruitment test, and no discrimination can be permitted.
This correct position has been consistently followed by this
Court, and we do not find any discordant note in the
decisions in State of Haryana v. Subhash Chander
Marwaha, Neelima Shangla v. State of Haryana, or
Jatendra Kumar v. State of Punjab.