In Brief
Two banks terminated recruitment offers to Agricultural Field Officer candidates who possessed B.Sc. (Forestry) instead of the notified B.Sc. (Agro-Forestry) qualification. The High Court set aside the terminations, treating Forestry as equivalent to Agro-Forestry. The Supreme Court held that courts cannot read equivalence into unnotified qualifications and that qualification criteria are sacrosanct. The Court overturned the High Court's order on principle, but exercised discretion under Article 142 to grant appointment to one respondent (Aarya K. Babu) in light of her personal hardship, clarifying this exceptional relief was not precedential.
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