SC Orders Postal Department to Appoint Candidate After 28-Year Legal Battle

Twenty-eight years after Ankur Gupta applied for a job in the postal department, the Supreme Court has ordered his appointment, acknowledging that there was an error in deeming him ineligible for the post. In 1995, Gupta had applied for the position of postal assistant.

- ASHISH SINHA

He was selected for pre-induction training but later removed from the merit list on the grounds that he had completed intermediate education in the “vocational stream.”

Gupta, along with other unsuccessful candidates, sought redress from the Central Administrative Tribunal, which ruled in their favor in 1999. The postal department challenged the tribunal’s decision and approached the Allahabad High Court in 2000. The high court upheld the CAT’s order in 2017, and a review was filed, which was also dismissed in 2021. Subsequently, the department appealed to the apex court.