In Brief
The appellant was appointed Principal of a college based on a selection panel prepared in 2002, but his appointment was later cancelled on the ground that he did not meet the mandatory 10-year teaching experience requirement (he had only 9 years 3 months on the application deadline). The appellant argued that his foreign study leave should count as teaching experience and that a later exemption cured his disqualification. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals, holding that study leave is not teaching experience, 10 years is a mandatory qualification, and a retrospective exemption cannot cure a disqualification that existed at the time of selection. The Court left open the question of whether exemption power survives after the 1982 Act for independent determination by the High Court.
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