Selection for a job does not automatically mean appointment, the Delhi High Court has told a man who sought its direction that he be given the job he was selected for 17 years ago, and added he had anyway come to the court too late.
Lal Babu, 45, in his petition told the court he was in June 1991 selected for the post of rigger in the erstwhile Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking (DESU) under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category.
However, in an official letter May 20, 1993, the DESU told Babu that there were no such vacancies to that post reserved for the SC/ST candidates.
‘The long delay of 17 years is found to be fatal and enough to disentitle the petitioner from any relief. Moreover, mere selection does not confer any right of appointment,’ Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said in his order issued Thursday.
Babu had not taken any step for 17 years, but submitted an application Jan 5, 2010, under the Right to Information Act. He was informed that there were vacancies in the SC/ST category, but the DESU was filling these up with candidates from the general category. Babu petitioned the Delhi government and the general manager of the DESU to appoint him to the post of rigger or any other alternative appointment of the same status ‘in the present company’.
‘The DESU is no longer in existence since 1997 and its successor, Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB), has since the year 2002 been unbundled. The various functions being performed by DESU have since been transferred to several undertakings,’ the court said.
‘The version of the petitioner of approaching the respondent DESU during the said 17 years cannot be accepted. There is no DESU now for the last nearly 13 years and the question of the petitioner approaching any such office does not arise,’ it added.
