SC: ambiguous eligibility criteria in a job advertisement must be read in the candidate's favour

Irfan Ahmad Hakak, waitlisted for the post of Librarian under Jammu & Kashmir's Advertisement Notice No. 1 of 2014, held the required M.LIS degree and claimed part of the advertised '3 years' experience' from work as an Assistant Librarian during his two-year M.LIS course. The General Administration Department first recommended, then withdrew, his appointment on the ground that experience gained while studying for the qualification could not count. The Central Administrative Tribunal ruled for him, but a Division Bench of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh held that the advertised experience had to be acquired only after obtaining the M.LIS qualification, and later dismissed his review petition too.

The Supreme Court set aside both High Court orders. It held that the advertisement never specified that the '3 years' experience' had to be as a Librarian rather than a similar post such as Library Assistant, and the respondents never clarified this ambiguity at the relevant time. Reiterating that resolving such ambiguity is ordinarily the employer's job, not the court's, the Bench held that any ambiguity or vagueness in a prescribed eligibility criterion must be construed in favour of a candidate who prima facie possesses the qualification, and directed that the post be offered to him, though without retrospective seniority or back-pay from the date the last selected candidate joined.