Direct recruitment to vacant posts within prescribed quotas is valid despite cadre restructuring and promotion of existing staff.

The Applicants (a registered association and an individual member) challenged Advertisement No. 15/2020 issued by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for 35 posts of Statistical Officer in the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD).

Previous recruitment attempts in 2013 and 2014 for similar posts were withdrawn due to changes in Recruitment Rules and lack of clarity on OBC reservation policies.

The Applicants contended that since these posts had remained vacant for more than two years since 2010, they were "deemed abolished" under Ministry of Finance Office Memorandum (OM) dated 12.04.2017 and could not be filled without a formal revival process.

During the pendency of the O.A., the GNCTD completed a cadre restructuring (approved March 2022), resulting in the creation of 135 posts and the subsequent promotion of 89 Statistical Assistants, including Applicant No. 2.

1. Whether the 35 advertised posts of Statistical Officer were legally "deemed abolished" under the OM dated 12.04.2017, rendering the recruitment process void ab initio.

2. Whether the ongoing cadre restructuring and subsequent promotions of the applicants rendered the prayers in the Original Application infructuous.

Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure OM No. 7(1) E.Coord-I/2017 dated 12.04.2017, which stipulates that posts vacant for more than two years are considered "deemed abolished" unless exempted or revived.

Principle of reasonable classification under Article 14 of the Constitution, and the caution against adopting a doctrinaire approach toward economic measures or administrative experimentation by the State as held in Manish Kumar v. Union of India (2021).

The Respondents argued that the vacancies pertained to the year 2020 and thus did not attract the "deemed abolished" clause.

The court noted that a formal Cadre Review Committee had restructured the service, leading to the sanction of 135 posts in March 2022, and the Applicants themselves benefited from this restructuring as 89 members were promoted and accepted these promotions without objection.

The court reasoned that the Applicants could not simultaneously challenge the recruitment of direct recruits while accepting the benefits of the very restructuring that addressed their grievance regarding stagnation.

The court further observed that identification of abolished/surplus staff is an administrative function linked to the State's financial capacity and declined to probe into the wisdom of the government's administrative decisions.

The Original Application was dismissed as being devoid of merit and largely infructuous.