Recruitment, 'recruitment' according to the dictionary means 'enlist'. It is a comprehensive term and includes any method provided for inducting a person in public service. Appointment, selection, promotion, deputation are all well-known methods of recruitment. Even appointment by transfer is not unknown, K. Narayanan v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1994 SC 55: (1994) Supp 1 SCC 44.
The term 'recruitment' connotes and clearly signifies enlistment, acceptance, selection or approval for appointment. Certainly, this is not actual appointment or posting in service. In contradistinction the word 'appointment' means an actual act of posting a person to a particular office, Prafulla Kumar Swain v. Prakash Chandra Misra, (1993) Supp 3 SCC 181.
It includes entering into any agreement or other arrangement for recruitment and all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly. [Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, s. 2(1)(h)]
The terms 'recruitment' and 'appointment' are not synonymous and connote different meanings. The term 'recruitment' connotes and signifies enlistment, acceptance, selection or approval for appointment and not actual appointment or posting in service 'appointment' means an act of posting a person to a particular office, Basant Lal Malhotra v. State of Punjab, AIR 1969 P&H 178.
Includes the issuing of any advertisement for the purpose of recruitment, the offering by advertisement to secure or assist in securing any employment in any country or place outside India and the entering into any correspondence, negotiation, agreement or arrangement with any individual for or in relation to the employment of such individual in any country or place outside India. [Emigration Act, 1983 (31 of 1983), s. 2(1)(m)]
Recruitment, is comprehensive enough to embrace the content of all the rules including the fitment of candidate recruited to the service vis-'-vis each other, Ashok Kumar v. Union of India, AIR 1982 SC 795.
Recruitment, is just the initial process which may eventually lead to an appointment. Recruitment and appointment are, thus, two separate concepts and are not synonymous, Gurdev Singh Gill v. State of Punjab, 1968 Sind LR 538: 1969 ILR 1 Punj 231.
Recruitment, is only for making up the deficiency occurring in the cadre and this signifies enlistment, acceptance, selection or approval for appointment and not actual appointment or posting in service, Besant Lal v. State of Punjab, (1969) 70 Punj LR 985: 1969 Lab IC 696: 1969 ILR 2 Punj 292: AIR 1969 P&H 178: 1968 Serv LR 883.
Recruitment, signifies a stage prior to the issuance of an actual appointment order, Jagdish Ch. Patnaik v. State of Orissa, (1998) 4 SCC 456.