SAJAN J MENON Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ, petitions have been placed before us on a reference made by a learned single Judge of this Court doubting the correctness of a judgment of a learned single Judge in WJP(C) No. 178 of 2005 and the decision of a Division Bench in Mohan v. Public Service Commission,1994 2 KerLT 585 in view of the decision of the apex court in Dr. Dinesh Kumar and Ors. v. Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad and Ors., 1985 AIR(SC) 1415 . Apex Court in Dr. Dinesh Kumar and Ors. case (supra) was dealing with a case of admission to MBBS Post Graduate Courses in Medical Faculty; in Motilal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad. Court held it would be wholly unjust to grant the admissions to students by assessing their relative merits with reference to the marks obtained by them not at the same qualifying examination where standard or judging would be reasonably uniform but at different qualifying examinations held by different State Governments or Universities where the standard of judging would necessarily vary and not be the same and that would indeed be blatantly violative of the concept of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution.

(2.) A Division Bench of this Court in Mohan v. Public Service Commission (supra) was examining the legality in accepting the marks in the qualifying examination and marks in interview for appointment to various teaching posts in the Medical Education Department through the Kerala Public Service Commission. Petitioner therein laid considerable stress on the decision of the apex court in Dr. Dinesh Kumar's case (supra) and contended that the marks obtained by the applicants in the qualifying examination should not be reckoned for the purpose of selection to various teaching posts since the same would violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The Bench distinguished the judgment of the apex court in facts and took the view that the apex court was dealing with admission of students to the Post Graduate Medical Courses and not dealing with appointment of Teachers and/or Professors through a selection conducted by the Public Service Commission. Another learned single Judge of this Court in O.P. No. 11079 of 1999 following the judgment in Mohan's case held that awarding of marks in a selection on the basis of interview and weightage for educational attainments would not be objectionable even if the evaluation by various universities might not be uniform. A learned single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No. 178 of 2005 also held that there is no illegality in giving weightage for the marks obtained in the qualifying examinations by the Public Service Commission while conducting selection to the post of HSST. Learned single Judge who made the reference felt that the matter requires a second look in the light of the decision of the apex court in Dinesh Kumar's case and hence the matter has been placed before us.

(3.) Kerala Public Service Commission published a notification in the Kerala Gazette Extra Ordinary dated 29-6-2004 inviting applications for the post of Higher Secondary School Teacher in Computer Science/Computer Application (HSST in Computer Science/Computer Application) in the Kerala Higher Secondary Education Department. The post of HSST in Computer Science/Computer Application is a post under the Special Rules for the Kerala Higher Secondary Education State Service. The qualification prescribed for the post are as follows: