HC upholds cancellation of meteorology inspector exam

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh high court has, on April 2, dismissed a batch of writ petitions challenging the cancellation of a departmental examination for the post of inspector (legal meteorology). Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad has ruled that mere participation in an examination does not grant candidates a vested right to appointment or the declaration of results. The case involved several Assistant Grade-III employees who applied for the promotional post following a 2021 advertisement. While the state's 2013 recruitment rules originally required a simple graduation degree, the authorities later found this inconsistent with central government norms. The Legal Metrology (General) Rules, 2011, framed by the Centre, mandate a Bachelor of Science degree with Physics or a degree in Engineering as the minimum qualification. Based on these guidelines, the state dept issued an amended list in Sept 2022 declaring several candidates ineligible for lacking Physics as a subject in their graduation.Although the petitioners participated in the examination on 17 Dec 2022 under interim court orders, the state cancelled the entire process in Jan 2023 to align with statutory requirements. Counsel for the petitioners argued that the state could not change the "rules of the game" once the process had started. They contended that the 2023 amendment to the state rules, which officially added the Physics requirement, should not apply to an ongoing recruitment process. Rejecting these contentions, the court observed that state recruitment rules are subordinate to central legislation.The bench maintained that the state is competent to halt a recruitment exercise to ensure it conforms to binding legal provisions.