In Brief
The Supreme Court held that an ongoing recruitment process initiated by advertisement before a new procedure comes into force must be completed under the rules that existed at the time of advertisement. The APSC had issued advertisements for 65 Assistant Engineer positions in December 2018 under the 2010 Rules. After the first phase (screening test) was conducted in June 2019 under those rules, new 2019 Procedures came into force in April 2019 introducing substantial changes including negative marking. The Court ruled that applying different norms to different phases of the same recruitment would be unfair and breach candidate expectations, and therefore the entire process must be completed under the 2010 Rules as originally applicable.
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