Judgment :

HARJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

1. Delay condoned.

2. Leave granted.

3. This appeal by way of special leave has been filed by the Union of India and the State Trading Corporation impugning the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi dated 18th May 2009 whereby the judgment of the Single Judge dated 9th January 2009 has been set aside and a direction has been issued that the case of the respondent for appointment as Director Marketing in the State Trading Corporation be re-considered in the manner indicated therein. The facts of the case are as under:

4. The respondent Bhaskarendu Datta Majumdar joined the services of the State Trading Corporation (hereinafter called "Corporation") in April 2001 as Executive Secretary to the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Corporation and was on the relevant date working as Chief General Manager. A post of Director (Marketing) having fallen vacant, the respondent applied for the post on the 27th December 2005. Interviews were held on 4th March 2006 by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB for short) and two candidates were shortlisted, the respondent being at serial No.1, and one Neeraj Mishra at serial No.2 in order of preference. Consequent to the selection, the Central Vigilance Commissioner also issued a clearance for the respondent on or around 26th March 2006, and it is the case of the respondent that the Department of Commerce, being the Ministry concerned, forwarded his name to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC for short) for final approval. Further, it is the case of the respondent that his name has been endorsed by the Home Minister as the second Member of the ACC, but the incumbent Cabinet Secretary who had earlier been the Managing Director of the Corporation, scuttled his appointment taking note of some serious allegations which at one point of time had been levelled against him. It appears that in 1994-95 the respondent had been dragged into various departmental enquiries and two criminal investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the instance of the said officer, but he was exonerated of any misdoing and the adverse entries of doubtful integrity were thereby deleted from his confidential roll. As a consequence of what had happened, Neeraj Misra who was at serial No.2 was proposed for appointment but finally even his name too was dropped and a direction was issued by the ACC to undertake a fresh process for filling up the vacancy. The respondent thereupon filed a Writ Petition in the Delhi High Court which was dismissed by the learned Single Judge holding that it was the exclusive jurisdiction of the ACC to assess the suitability of a candidate and the court could not interfere in this discretion except in a case of proven mala fides. The Letters Patent Appeal that followed has been allowed and that judgment is now challenged before us. The primary reason that weighed with the Division Bench was that the ACC had given no reasons whatsoever, not even on the file, as to why the recommendation of the PESB was being ignored.

5. Mr. Malhotra, the learned Additional Solicitor General for the appellant Union of India, has submitted that as the ACC was the final authority to make the selection and appointment, it alone had the jurisdiction to determine the suitability of an officer and a decision taken by the committee was not open to challenge except on grounds of mala fide or for other exceptional reasons. He has pointed out that there was no plausible reason for the Division Bench to have interfered, more particularly as there was no rule which required that reasons be recorded by the ACC while differing with the opinion of the PESB. Reliance for this assertion has been placed on Union of India & Anr. vs. Samar Singh & Ors. 1996 (10) SCC 555, Chief Executive Officer vs. Biswa Bhusan Nandi 2008 (10) SCC 161 and Union of India and Ors. vs. Ram Kumar Thakur 2009(1) SCC 122.

6. Before the Division Bench, the primary issue raised o