SAJESH BABU Vs. KERALA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned Senior Counsel and the other learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, the learned Government Pleader and the learned Standing Counsel for the Kerala Public Service Commission, for short, 'PSC'. These Original Petitions arise from the common order issued by the Kerala Administrative Tribunal on complaints raised by persons who had competed for recruitment to the category of Assistant Motor Vehicle inspector (AMVI) on the basis of the PSC's notification dated 11/07/2008, the last date fixed for applying in terms of which was 28/08/2008.

(2.) The fundamental plea of the petitioners before the Tribunal was that there was no logical, rational and reasonable assessment of the probable number of anticipated vacancies by the PSC in terms of its constitutional and statutory obligations while it fixed the number of candidates to be included in the short list. PSC published short list with 269 candidates in the main list and 354 candidates in the supplementary list for various communities eligible for reservation on the basis of the relevant quota and rota rules. After verification of the certificates and interview, the final ranked list was published with 204 candidates in the main list and 182 candidates in the supplementary list.

(3.) Considering the different circulars and precedents referred to in arguments, the Tribunal concluded, among other things, that the fixation of the number of candidates to be included in the short list cannot be treated as arbitrary since the number of candidates in the main list and the supplementary list in the final ranked list is totaling upto 386.