Can’t change selection process midway, HC to NIPHM

Hyderabad: Ruling that selection process cannot be changed midway, the Telangana high court has directed the National Institute for Plant Health Management (NIPHM) to draw a fresh list of candidates based on written test marks to fill the post of assistant director.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Renuka Yara also nullified the selection of Dr Edpuganti Sree Latha who was selected for the post based on the changed criteria. The challenge by petitioner Neelam Lavanya had gone up to the Supreme Court which remanded it to high court again.
Lavanya's counsel K Lakshmi Narasimha pointed out that the selection committee introduced additional evaluation components mid-process – academic qualifications, research publications and training – which were not part of the criteria notified in the advertisement issued in 2016.
The bench agreed with him and held that the modification amounted to altering rules after the selection process had already commenced, contrary to the Constitution bench decision in Tej Prakash Pathak vs Rajasthan high court. The bench also ruled that the changed norms had huge impact on candidates' final marks.
While Lavanya had secured 50 out of 80 marks in the written test, Sree Latha had scored 40, giving Lavanya a 10 mark lead under the original criteria.
But after the norms were changed midway, written test weightage was reduced and the total margin between the two narrowed to just 2.50 marks, with Lavanya at 78.05 and Sree Latha at 73.75.
The HC rejected the contention that the altered criteria was known to all candidates. The bench also observed that contradictory positions were taken by the department and Sree Latha before the Supreme Court.
The bench, which was not in favour of redoing the whole exercise, said that authorities can complete the selection process based on marks obtained in the written test.