In a firm nudge to the Union Public Service Commission, the Supreme Court has ruled that teaching experience earned by candidates up to July 29, 2021—the revised last date for applications—must be considered for the 2021 recruitment to 363 Principal posts in Delhi’s Directorate of Education.
A two-judge bench held that those who crossed the ten-year teaching threshold between the original deadline (May 13, 2021) and the extended one (July 29, 2021) are fully eligible, and if they make the merit list, they are to be placed in the vacancies already kept aside for them.
The ruling overturns the Delhi High Court’s earlier endorsement of UPSC’s restrictive stance, which insisted on freezing eligibility as on May 13—even though the detailed advertisement was delayed, withdrawn, and later republished due to the COVID-related shutdown.
The Court took a dim view of the Commission’s reasoning. The note-sheets placed before the bench revealed no explanation for clinging to the early cut-off, especially when the original advertisement vanished from the website barely a day after it appeared. Once the detailed July 10 advertisement reset the last date to July 29 and declared that eligibility would be measured “in every respect” on that closing date, the Court said, UPSC had no ground to revert to a defunct timeline.
The appellants—teachers who gained the qualifying experience during the May–July window—had taken the exam and even faced interviews under interim protection, but their results were withheld. Thirteen posts remained frozen while the litigation unfolded.
The Tribunal had backed the candidates in 2023, but UPSC successfully challenged that order before the High Court, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
In its final word, the Court found “no justification” for determining eligibility by an advertisement that had effectively never launched the selection process. Experience accumulated before the revised deadline, it held, must be honoured.
UPSC has now been directed to announce the results of these candidates and appoint them if they qualify on merit, using the seats already reserved for this outcome.
