In Brief
A college lecturer's appointment to a reserved (Scheduled Tribe) position was terminated when authorities discovered she did not belong to that community and her caste certificate was invalid. The Supreme Court upheld the termination, holding that appointments to reserved vacancies must benefit genuine members of the reserved category to fulfill the Constitution's equality mandate. However, the Court refused to order recovery of her salary and allowances paid during her service, finding that she had actually worked for the compensation and there was no evidence of fraud, deeming it in the interests of justice under Article 142 not to recover the amounts already earned.
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