Facts of the Case

The petitioner Mr. Kamal Kapri in the instant case invoked the writ jurisdiction of the Uttarakhand high court in the nature of Certiorari under Article 226 of the Indian constitution. The respondent: Uttarakhand Technical Education Board had invited applications for appointment as assistant teachers for Garhwal and Kumaon regions.

The petitioner had applied for the post of a mathematics teacher in the Kumaon region. The appointing authority i.e. the additional director of the Kumaon Mandal appointed the petitioner at Kumaon.

One Chandra Shekhar Bhatt raised grievances before the appointing authority that by virtue of his higher merit in the selection procedure, he was entitled to be appointed in the Kumaon region but was allotted the Garhwal region, in contravention to his preference. It was further pointed out that less meritorious candidates of the same category were allotted Kumaon.

Since the appointing authority did not pay attention to Mr Bhatt’s contentions he decided to file a petition in the Uttarakhand High Court on 9^th January 2018. On 29^th January of the same year, the court ruled in Mr. Bhatt’s favour pursuant to which he was allotted the Kumaon region and four candidates in the Garhwal region belonging to the same category were transferred to different regions.

Aggrieved by this, two of the four transferred candidates- Mr. Kamal Kapri and Mr. Girija Shankar Pant approached the court in the instant case. The respondents in their defense argued that the petitioners have been rightfully transferred owing to their lower merit in pursuance with the previous orders of the hon’ble high court.

The learned counsel for the petitioner rebutted that the impugned order of the high court had directed the respondent to merely take cognizance of Mr. Chandra Shekhar Bhatt’s representations and hence, it was incumbent upon the respondent to accord an opportunity to the petitioner in the instant case (Mr. Kamal Kapri) to put forth their case, the failure of which had led to an essential element of the principles of natural justice being vitiated and the impugned order of the appointing authority was set aside.

Hon’ble Justice Lokpal Singh elucidated-

No decision must be taken which will affect the rights of any person without giving him an opportunity of first putting forward his case.

In lieu of this procedural inadequacy the Court allowed the appeal of Mr. Kamal Kapri.

Denouement

This author is of the view that Principles of natural justice are indispensable to ensure that an accused person is not exploited and harassed on mere aspersions that she has committed a crime. The right to be heard is a constitutional is a fundamental safeguard explicitly enumerated in article 22 of the Indian Constitution, and any deviation from this should only be in exceptional circumstances in accordance to the procedure established by law.