Public interest litigations must be filed with genuine motives; those filed for personal grievances or oblique purposes are subject to dismissal.

JUDGMENT :

PER DHIRAJ SINGH THAKUR, CJ :

The present petition has been filed purportedly in public interest and seeks the issuance of the writ of quo-warranto against the private respondent Nos.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 on the ground that the said respondents have been appointed to various posts in the Sri Venkateshwara Veterinary University, Tirupati, even when they do not fulfill the basic eligibility criteria for such an appointment in terms of the UGC regulations of 2018 and the Andhra Pradesh (Regulation and Appointments to Public Services and Rationalization of Staff Pattern and Pay Structure) Act, 1994, as well as the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (Entrustment of Additional Functions with respect to the Services of Universities) Act, 2017.

2. The respondents have taken a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the present petition on the ground that the same has been filed for oblique purposes and to settle personal scores with the University. It is stated that the petitioner's wife, namely Dr.Srilatha, who is working as a professor in the veterinary sciences in the said University, was also a candidate, who had unsuccessfully applied for the post of Dean of Veterinary Sciences in the said University and having failed to make up the merit, the petitioner with a view to seek vengeance against the University, had filed the present petition to settle scores with the University.

3. It is not denied by counsel for the petitioner that Dr. Srilatha had also applied for selection and appointment against the post of Dean of Veterinary Sciences, but had been unsuccessful. This assertion made in the counter-affidavit filed by the University had remained uncontroverted by the petitioner, who chose to remain silent on that aspect.

4. One of the grounds urged by learned counsel for the respondents was that the selection process was complete in all respects. Another aspect highlighted by learned counsel for the University was that the university had issued the notification, dated 15.10.2020, while the petitioner himself was serving as a professor in the same University and retired only in the month of June, 2023. It is also stated that the candidature of his wife was rejected before 14.10.2022 when the orders of appointment with regard to the respondents were issued and the PIL came to be filed almost one year thereafter on 14.09.2023.

The petitioner, it is stated, waited for his retirement before he decided to challenge the appointment of the private respondents. This, it is stated, was done purely for his own convenience during his stay in the University. It is thus stated that since the petitioner had a direct personal interest in the matter, and since the petition was filed with oblique purposes of settling personal scores, the petition is required to be not entertained and dismissed outrightly.

5. The stand of the counsel for the petitioner, however, is that the petitioner has been filing public interest litigations earlier also and further that the fact that the petitioner's spouse also was a candidate, who had applied for one of the posts of Dean (Veterinary Sciences) would not materially affect the right of the petitioner to challenge the appointment of the private respondents, more so when the wife of the petitioner ought not to be treated as an appendage of the petitioner, but as an independent individual.

6. We have heard the counsel for the parties.

7. On a perusal of the material record and on the basis of the arguments that were advanced during the course of hearing, it is clear that the petitioner has a direct and personal interest in the present litigation inasmuch as his wife, Dr. Srilatha, had herself been a candidate for the post of Dean (Veterinary Sciences) in the same University in which the petitioner was working. The present petition clearly appears to have been filed to somehow get even with the University by questioning the selection and appointment of the private respondents, which is direc