Editor,
The Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), vide Advertisement No APPSC/1/2025, dated 9 May, 2025, notified 166 vacancies for the post of assistant engineer (civil) in various government departments. The notification expressly laid down the scheme of the recruitment test (RT), consisting of Paper A on general awareness and logical reasoning, carrying 100 marks, and Paper B on the technical paper carrying 200 marks, both of which were to be objective in nature.
Significantly, the notification makes no reference to any departmental segregation of candidates at the RT stage. In terms of the APPSC Manual for Conduct of Examination, 2024, departmental allocation is permissible only at the stage of final selection after the viva voce, and not at the preliminary stages of recruitment.
Despite this clear framework, grave irregularities have marred the process of shortlisting candidates for the mains examination, as declared on 30 July, 2025. Firstly, the commission introduced premature departmental segregation by dividing candidates into five distinct categories, corresponding to different departments, during the preliminary shortlisting stage itself. This action is wholly inconsistent with the published notification and deprives candidates of a level playing field by artificially restricting the scope of competition.
Secondly, 843 civil engineering graduates, otherwise eligible for posts in the Hydropower, Rural Works, and Water Resources Departments, were excluded from consideration without any legal or rational justification, thereby denying them equal opportunity in public employment.
Thirdly, the published shortlist suffers from duplication, with 362 roll numbers appearing in both Category A and Category B. This duplication inflated the apparent candidate count while simultaneously reducing the pool of unique candidates who could compete at the mains stage. Fourthly, the commission failed to adhere to the statutorily mandated shortlisting ratio of 1:12 candidates per post. For 166 vacancies, 1,992 unique candidates should have been shortlisted. In actuality, only 1,947 names were published, of which 362 were duplicates, leaving only 1,585 unique candidates, thereby creating a shortfall of 407 candidates.
These deviations from the terms of the advertisement give rise to serious legal and constitutional infirmities. Under well-established service jurisprudence, recruitment notifications constitute a binding contract between the recruiting body and the candidates. The Supreme Court in K Manjusree v State of Andhra Pradesh [(2008) 3 SCC 512], and the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation v Rajendra Bhimrao Mandve [(2001) 10 SCC 51], has unequivocally held that “the rules of the game cannot be changed after the game has started.”
Similarly, in the Hemani Malhotra v High Court of Delhi [(2008) 7 SCC 11], the court struck down the prescription of minimum qualifying marks introduced after the examination as arbitrary and violative of the principles of fairness.
In Ashok Kumar Sharma v Chander Shekhar [(1997) 4 SCC 18], selections made contrary to the notified terms were quashed outright.
The principle that emerges from these binding precedents is that any alteration of the recruitment process that is not explicitly provided for in the notification or statutory rules is ultra vires, arbitrary, and unconstitutional. Such actions offend Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, which guarantee equality before law and equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
In light of the above, it is imperative that the APPSC immediately rectifies the shortlisting process to bring it in conformity with the advertisement dated 9 May, 2025 and the APPSC Manual for Conduct of Examination, 2024. A corrected list of candidates, strictly maintaining the 1:12 ratio and affording equal consideration to all eligible aspirants, must be issued forthwith.
We respectfully urge the state government, the APPSC, and all relevant oversight authorities to intervene without delay to uphold fairness, transparency, and constitutional propriety in this recruitment exercise, and to safeguard the integrity of Arunachal Pradesh’ premier recruiting institution.
Likha Tani