Jaipur: The Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court has directed the state govt to appoint a candidate selected for the post of Lokpal in Churu district, while quashing a fresh recruitment advertisement issued for the same post. The court held that the govt could not initiate a fresh selection process without recording valid reasons for withholding the earlier appointment.A single-judge bench of Justice Rekha Borana passed the order on June 30; the copy of the order was uploaded Thursday while hearing a petition filed by Mohammad Shakir. The court has directed the govt to issue the appointment letter to the petitioner within three weeks.Counsel for the petitioner Tanveer Ahamed informed the court that the dispute arose from a recruitment process initiated by the rural development and panchayati raj department through an advertisement dated Feb 20, 2025. After completing the selection process, the selection committee prepared a panel, which was approved by the governing body on Dec 5, 2025. The body directed issuance of appointment orders for candidates selected in 19 districts and commencement of the process for the remaining four districts.Despite being selected for Churu, the petitioner was not issued an appointment letter. Instead, the department issued a fresh advertisement on Dec 16, 2025, inviting applications for the same post in Churu.“The original selection process had neither been cancelled by any competent authority nor challenged on any legal ground. The state failed to explain why appointment orders were withheld despite completion of the selection process,” the court observed.Relying on the Supreme Court judgement in Chandramohan Nair v. George Joseph (2010) 12 SCC 687, the court held that while the govt may decline to accept the recommendations of a selection committee, it must record valid and cogent reasons for doing so.Launching a fresh recruitment process merely on ministerial directions without assigning reasons was held to be arbitrary, the court said.Accordingly, the court quashed the Dec 16, 2025, advertisement insofar as it related to Churu district and directed the state govt to issue the petitioner’s appointment order within three weeks.
