Context: A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan said courts have limited judicial review over such decisions by employers.

• Prescription of qualifications for a post is a matter of recruitment policy.
• Verdict overturned Odisha HC’s decision allowing a graduate to be appointed as a peon with the Punjab National Bank
• A prospective employer has discretion not to appoint a candidate who may have a “higher qualification”, but not the one prescribed for the job vacancy.
• The apex court said courts allow a “greater latitude” for employers to prescribe the necessary qualification for a post.
• Qualifications are prescribed keeping in view the need and interest of an institution or an industry or an establishment as the case may be.
• The Courts are not fit instruments to assess expediency or advisability or utility of such prescription of qualifications.
• However, an employer cannot act arbitrarily or fancifully in prescribing qualifications for posts.
• The judgment came on an appeal filed by the Punjab National Bank against an Orissa High Court decision allowing an over-qualified candidate to be appointed as a peon.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/employer-free-to-reject-over-qualified-applicants-sc/article33096617.ece

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