In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld the Division Bench's decision to set aside the selection of Principals for post-graduate and degree colleges in Uttar Pradesh by the Higher Education Services Commission. The Court held that despite appointing some Commission members who lacked proper qualifications, the Commission's process was fundamentally flawed: it arbitrarily changed screening norms and cut-off marks after the application deadline, called candidates in excess of prescribed ratios, and lacked adequate guidelines for assessing merit. Although the de facto doctrine validated the members' acts, the Court found deeper scrutiny justified given serious procedural breaches. When an entire selection is infected by widespread procedural irregularity, individual candidates cannot shield the selection from being set aside, as "fraud unravels everything." The integrity of selection institutions demands strict adherence to statutory procedures and self-imposed guidelines.
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