In Brief
The Supreme Court heard appeals from successful candidates in a large-scale recruitment process for Junior Engineers in Bihar that was cancelled after a select list was prepared. The candidates challenged this cancellation, arguing it violated procedural fairness as the selection had been completed under applicable rules. The State had sought to cancel the process and restart under amended rules, citing legal issues with the original rules' eligibility criteria. The Court held that once a selection process is substantially completed with a final select list prepared under court-approved procedures, the State cannot scrap it and restart—this would amount to changing the rules after the game was played. The Court directed the State to prepare a revised select list including both successful candidates and those wrongly excluded due to an allegedly invalid rule, completing this within three months.
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