In Brief
This case concerns a recruitment process for Technical Assistant positions in the UP Agriculture Department. The State initially advertised vacancies with incorrect category-wise distribution (3,616 General; 2,211 SC; 235 ST; 566 OBC). Before interviews began, the State corrected the calculation after discovering 1,749 diploma holders had been wrongly counted against OBC vacancies instead of General category, revising the distribution to (2,515 General; 1,882 SC; 201 ST; 2,030 OBC). The High Court quashed the revised requisition as unlawfully changing the rules mid-process. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that correcting a foundational error in vacancy calculations to comply with statutory reservation percentages is not an impermissible change. Unsuccessful candidates who knowingly participated post-revision were estopped from challenging the process. The Court rejected appeals for appointment of 906 candidates beyond statutory limits, finding such relief would violate the 50% reservation cap.
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