Unlawfully excluded candidates are entitled to retrospective appointment, but not monetary benefits for unworked periods.

The petitioner filed a petition under Article 226 seeking, among other reliefs, appointment and service benefits on the basis of his selection as a Samvida Shikshak Grade-III, including retrospective seniority and consequential benefits.

He submitted that he had completed the BTI course and relied on the coordinate Bench’s decision in Vinod Kumar Sharma v. State of M.P. and Others, W.P. No. 23307 of 2024, dated 15 April 2026.

In that decision, the Court directed retrospective appointment from the date of the first appointment order pursuant to the 2008 selection process, but denied monetary benefits for the period during which the petitioner had not worked.

1. Whether the relief granted in Vinod Kumar Sharma should apply mutatis mutandis to the petitioner.

2. Whether the petitioner should receive the benefit within a specified period.

Article 226 of the Constitution empowers the High Court to grant appropriate relief in writ proceedings.

The Court applied its coordinate Bench’s decision in Vinod Kumar Sharma, which granted appointment effective from the date of the first appointment order pursuant to the 31 August 2008 selection process, while denying monetary benefits for a period in which the petitioner had not worked.

The Court also referred within that decision to Smita Shrivastava v. State of M.P. and Others, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 764, as authority for restitutive relief where the State’s actions had unlawfully delayed appointment.

The Court accepted that the petitioner’s case was governed by the coordinate Bench’s decision in Vinod Kumar Sharma and directed that its order apply mutatis mutandis.

It did not set out a separate assessment of the petitioner’s claimed seniority or monetary entitlements; those matters were left to be governed by the adopted precedent, including its limitation on monetary benefits for periods of non-service.

The respondents were directed to grant the petitioner the benefits under that order within three months from receipt of a certified copy of the judgment.