UNION OF INDIA & ORS. versus N. HARGOPAL & ORS.

Citation: [1987] 2 S.C.R. 910 · Decided: 13-04-1987 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: O. CHINNAPPA REDDY · Disposal: Disposed off

Judgment (excerpt)

A 
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. 
v. 
N. HARGOPAL & ORS. 
APRIL 13, 1987 
B 
[0. CHINN APP A REDDY AND MURARI MO HON DUTT, JJ.] 
Service Law. 
Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) 
Act, 1959: Ss. 2(e), (f) and 4-Establishment in public sector/private 
C sector-Whether bound to appoint only persons sponsored by employ-
ment exchanges-Statute whether covers government departments. 
Constitution of India, Arts. 14 & 16: Insistence on recruitment 
through employment exchanges-Whether offends equality clause. 
D 
Sub-section (1) of s. 4 of the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory 
Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959 requires every·establishment in 
public sector to notify vacancy in any employment to the employment 
exchange. Suh-section (2) lays down similar requirement in respect of 
every establishment in private sector, while suh-s. (4) lays down that 
nothing in sub-ss. (1) and (2) shall be deemed to impose any obligation 
E 
upon any employer to recruit any person through the employment 
exchanges to rdl any vacancy merely because that vacancy has been 
notified. An 'establishment' is defined ins. 2(e) of the Act to mean any 
office or any place where any industry, trade, business or occupation is 
carried on, an 'establishment in public sector'in s. 2(f) as an establish-
ment owned, controlled or managed by the Government or a Depart-
F 
ment of the Government, and an 'establishment in private sector' ins . 
. 2(g) as an establishment which is not an establishment in public sector. 
Instructions issued by the Government oflndia from time to time 
enjoined upon employers-Central Government offices, quasi-
Government institutions and statutory organisations and estahlish-
G 
ments in the private sector to restrict their field of choice for vacancies 
to which the Act applied in the first instance, to candidates sponsored 
by employment exchanges. 
A question arose as to whether an 'establishment in the public 
sector', or an 'establishment in the private sector', as defined in the 
H . Act, could make appointments to posts to which the Act applies, of 
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UNION v. N. HARGOPAL 
911 
persons not sponsored by the employment exchanges, and whether the 
A 
Act covers Government establishments also. 
The High Court held that the Act had no application to Govern-
ment establishments, that it casts no obligation either on the public 
sector establishments or on the private sector establishments to make 
the appointment from among candidates sponsored by the employment 
exchange only, and that any insistence that candidates sponsored by the 
employment exchanges alone should be appointed would be contrary to 
the right guaranteed by Arts. 14 and 16 of the Constitution. 
Disposing of the Appeal of the Union of India, the Court, 
HELD: 1. The High Court was wrong in holding that the Act was 
not applicable to Government establishments. If the definition of 
'establishment' in s. 2(e). which includes an 'office', is read alongside 
the s. 2(t), it will be clear that Government offices are also included in 
the expression 'establishment in public sector'. [914E] 
2.1 There is no provision in the Act which obliges an employer to 
employ those persons only who have been sponsored by the employment 
exchanges. Section 4(4) of the Act makes it explicitly clear that the 
employer is under no obligation to recruit any person through the emp-
loyment exchanges to fill iu a vacancy merely because that vacancy has 
been notified under ss. 4(1) and 4(2). The compulsion extends only to 
notification of vacancies that may occur in the establishment before 
filling them up. [915G-H; 916G] 
2.2 The object of the Act is not to restrict, but to enlarge the field 
of choice so that the employer may choose the best and the most efficient 
and to provide an opportunity to the worker to have his claim for 
appointment considered without having to knock at every door for 
employment. [918B-C] 
3. The Government is at perfect liberty to issue instructions to its 
own departments and organisations to adhere to the role that not 
merely vacancies should be notified to the employment exchanges but the 
vacancies should also be filled by candidates sponsored by the employ-
ment exchanges, provided the instructions do not contravene any con-
stitutional provision or any statute. But these instructions cannot bind 
other bodies which are created by statute and which function under the 
authority of ·statute. In the abs

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