MANAGER, BAM COLLEGE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE 1st petitioner is the Manager of B.A.M. College, Thuruthicad and the other petitioners except the 2nd petitioner, are Last Grade Employees. The 2nd petitioner is a Mechanic working in the 1st petitioner's College. Consequent to the delinking of pre -degree course from the Colleges, the State Government had issued orders revising the staff pattern and work norms of Non -Teaching Staff of Aided Private Arts and Science Colleges. In accordance with the revised staff pattern and work norms approved by the Government, the 1st petitioner recruited one Mechanic and five Last Grade Employees. This recruitment was made through a statutorily constituted Selection Committee, constituted in accordance with the provisions of Statute 46 of the Mahatma Gandhi University First Statute. The grievance of the petitioners in the writ petition is that though the appointments were made on the recommendations of the Statutory Selection Committee, when the proposals as contained in Exts. P4 and P4(a) were submitted to the 2nd respondent for approval, he returned the same vide Exts. P5 and P5(a) communications.

(2.) A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the 1st and 2nd respondents. Therein, the stand taken by the Government is that by Ext. R1(c) Government Order dated 15.5.2013, which in turn refers to the earlier Government Order dated 11.04.2013 (Ext. P9), it had been made clear by the Government that Government officers who are permitted by the Government to be its nominees in the Selection Committee constituted for the purposes of recruitment in Private Aided Colleges, should not attend the Selection Committee until formal orders are issued by the Government nominating them as Government representatives in the Staff Selection Committee. Thus, it is the stand of the Government that in so far as the Selection Committee in the instant case comprised of a nominee of the Government, in whose favour a formal order by the Government nominating him as the Government representative was not issued, the selection conducted by the Committee of which he was a representative could not be approved.

(3.) I have heard Senior counsel Sri Babu Varghese for the petitioners and also the learned Government Pleader.