Supreme Court Holds That Recruitment Rules Cannot Be Retrospectively Amended to Change Selection Criteria After the Selection Process Has Substantially Progressed
Case Name: Abhay Kumar Patel & Ors. v. State of Bihar & Ors. (with connected SLP)
Citation: 2026 INSC 24
Date of Judgment/Order: 06 January 2026
Bench: Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi
Held: The Supreme Court held that the State of Bihar could not retrospectively apply the Bihar Engineering Services Class-II Recruitment (Amendment) Rules, 2022 to an ongoing recruitment process initiated under the 2019 Rules, as such retrospective application fundamentally altered the basis of selection after completion of the written examination and publication of provisional merit lists, thereby violating Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
Summary: The appellants challenged the retrospective application of Rule 8(5), introduced by the 2022 Amendment Rules, which granted additional marks and age relaxation to contractual Assistant Engineers after the recruitment process pursuant to 2019 advertisements had reached an advanced stage. Under the 2019 Rules, selection was solely based on marks obtained in the written examination, and the appellants had already been placed in provisional merit lists and called for document verification. The High Court upheld the amendment as a policy decision, holding that no vested right to appointment had accrued. The Supreme Court undertook a detailed examination of the statutory recruitment framework, the stages of selection, and settled jurisprudence on changing eligibility criteria mid-process, relying on decisions such as K. Manjusree and Tej Prakash Pathak. It found that the amendment impermissibly rewrote the “rules of the game” after the game had been played and unjustly prejudiced candidates who competed under the original criteria.
Decision: The appeal was allowed, the judgment of the Patna High Court dated 05.07.2023 was set aside, and the State was directed to finalise appointments strictly on the basis of the unamended 2019 Rules and the merit lists published in June–July 2022 within two months, while clarifying that services of persons already appointed pursuant to the impugned judgment may be dealt with in accordance with law, with no order as to costs and all pending applications disposed of.