Recruitment | Challenge To Marks Barred By Constructive Res Judicata Where Party Accepts Remand On Limited Issue: Gauhati High Court

The Gauhati High Court held that where the issue of award of marks in a recruitment process had already been raised in an earlier writ proceeding but the party had settled for remand to the executive authority on a limited issue, the subsequent challenge to the marks would be barred by constructive res judicata. Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar, presiding over the case, observed, “…constructive res judicata … is a legal fiction embodied in Explanation 4 to Section 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which expands the traditional doctrine of res judicata. Ordinarily, res judicata bars the issues that were actually raised and decided in an earlier proceeding. Constructive res judicata goes further and it bars the issues that ought to have been raised, but were not.”“In other words, constructive res judicata is essentially a rule of compulsory joinder of grounds; meaning thereby that all the grounds, which ought to have been taken, or which is taken, must be pressed; and the party not doing so would be disentitled to question it again in a subsequent proceeding.”Applying the above, the Court observed, “…the question of award of marks was specifically raised by the respondent No. 6 in WP(C) No. 2442/2013… but… the respondent No. 6… settled for the remand on one issue, namely, validity of the B. Ed. Degree of the appellant. This would clearly fall in the category of res judicata with the challenge to the award of marks.”The dispute arose out of appointment to the post of Principal of Bamundongra Higher Secondary School, Barpeta. An advertisement was issued in May, 2019 and a merit list was prepared placing the appellant at Serial No.1 and respondent No.6 at Serial No.2. Before final selection, respondent No.6 sought re-examination of the list. Subsequently, due to a cloud over the validity of the appellant's B.Ed. degree, respondent No.6 was appointed as Principal on 29.07.2021.The appellant challenged the issue regarding validity of his B.Ed. degree, and upon verification, the Government found the degree to be valid and appointed him as Principal on 29.04.2023, reverting respondent No.6. This again led to further writ petitions challenging both the validity of the degree and the marking pattern, resulting in repeated remands.The appellant contended that the respondent No.6 had earlier accepted the marking pattern and could not subsequently challenge it, and that the challenge to marks was barred by constructive res judicata since it had already been raised in earlier proceedings. The respondent No.6 contended that the issue of fair award of marks had not been finally decided and therefore could still be raised.The High Court, after considering the rival submissions, pointed, “…the matter should have been finally decided by the learned Single Judge… and the school did not have any regular Principal for all this while.” At the same time, noting that the dispute had continued for about seven years and that the school did not have a regular Principal, the Court modified the impugned judgment and issued a direction to the Secretary to finally examine the marks and pass necessary orders within fifteen days.The Court stated, “We have set a strict timeline… the issue regarding appointment of the Principal has been hanging fire since the last seven years and the school is being run by an in-charge Principal.”Accordingly, the appeal was disposed of.Case Title: Sri Sajal Kamal Das v. The State of Assam and Ors.LL Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Gau) 57Case Number: WA/402/2025Click Here To Read Judgement

Recruitment | Challenge To Marks Barred By Constructive Res Judicata Where Party Accepts Remand On Limited Issue: Gauhati High Court

Bhavya Singh

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