Appointments to public posts should be strictly in accordance with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution and the eligibility criteria should be unformed without giving any scope of arbitrary selections, the Supreme Court said . The observations were made by the apex court which set aside the selection of a primary teacher in Jammu and Kashmir who had crossed the upper limit as per the eligibility criteria. LEARNING FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS Article 16 deals with the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State. (3) Nothing in this article shall prevent Parliament from making any law prescribing, in regard to a class or classes of employment or appointment to an office under the Government of, or any local or other authority within, a State or Union territory, any requirement as to residence within that State or Union territory prior to such employment or appointment (4) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State. Article 16(4-A), inserted vide Constitution (Seventy-Seventh) Amendment Act, 1995, introduced the provision of reservation in matters of promotion with consequential seniority. (The provision of ‘Consequential Seniority’ was introduced vide Constitution (Eighty- Fifth) Amendment Act, 2001). Article 14 of the Constitution of India “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” Article 14.2 Article 14.2  is clearly in two parts – while it commands the State not to deny to any person ‘equality before law’, it also commands the State not to deny the ‘equal protection of the laws’. Equality before law prohibits discrimination. It is a negative concept. The concept of ‘equal protection of the laws’ requires the State to give special treatment to persons in different situations in order to establish equality amongst all. It is positive in character. Therefore, the necessary corollary to this would be that equals would be treated equally, whilst un-equals would have to be treated unequally.

Appointments to public posts should be strictly in accordance with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution and the eligibility criteria should be unformed without giving any scope of arbitrary selections, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

 

The observations were made by the apex court which set aside the selection of a primary teacher in Jammu and Kashmir who had crossed the upper limit as per the eligibility criteria.

Article 16 deals with the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.

No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.

(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent Parliament from making any law prescribing, in regard to a class or classes of employment or appointment to an office under the Government of, or any local or other authority within, a State or Union territory, any requirement as to residence within that State or Union territory prior to such employment or appointment

(4) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.

Article 16(4-A), inserted vide Constitution (Seventy-Seventh) Amendment Act, 1995, introduced the provision of reservation in matters of promotion with consequential seniority. (The provision of ‘Consequential Seniority’ was introduced vide Constitution (Eighty- Fifth) Amendment Act, 2001).

Article 14 of the Constitution of India

 “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”

1.2 The said Article is clearly in two parts – while it commands the State not to deny to any person ‘equality before law’, it also commands the State not to deny the ‘equal protection of the laws’. Equality before law prohibits discrimination. It is a negative concept. The concept of ‘equal protection of the laws’ requires the State to give special treatment to persons in different situations in order to establish equality amongst all. It is positive in character. Therefore, the necessary corollary to this would be that equals would be treated equally, whilst un-equals would have to be treated unequally