(1.) This review petition is filed by the State of Tripura and its authorities seeking to recall and modify judgment dated 03.12.2019 passed by this Court in Writ Appeal No.142 of 2019.
(2.) Background facts may be noted in brief at the outset:
(3.) This judgment of the learned Single Judge was challenged by the State Government before the Division Bench. Division Bench by a judgment dated 03.12.2019 gave only partial relief in the appeal. To the extent there was no challenge to the TPS Grade-II service which was also quashed by the learned Single Judge, relief was granted. The decision of the learned Single Judge to quash the new recruitment policy was also reversed. However, so far as the central issue of cancelling the ongoing selection process of TCS Grade-II service, writ appeal was dismissed. The Court concluded that once the recruitment process had started and had reached to an advanced stage, the same could not have been cancelled merely because the State Government had formulated a new policy of recruitment. It was noticed that only significant change brought about in such new policy was to restrict the marks of oral interview to 10% of the aggregate as against which as per the then prevailing rules, the oral interview represented 11% of the aggregate marks. Only for such minuscule change, the entire selection process which had reached to an advanced stage could not have been cancelled. It was also noted that the proportion of the marks for written as well as oral interviews were prescribed under relevant Regulations which were framed by the Government in exercise of powers under Rule 6 of the Tripura Civil Service Rules. These regulations were thus in the nature of sub-ordinate legislation. The provisions contained in the statutory Regulations could not have been superseded by executive instructions. Relevant portion of the judgment of the Division Bench reads as under: