( 1 ) THE petitioner is before this Court praying for the following reliefs.- (I) to call for the relevant records as to the selection and the appointment of the Staff Nurses by the respondent 1-National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (in short, 'the Institute') in pursuance of the advertisement dated 28-1-2000 (Annexure-G); (ii) to quash the selection of the respondents 2, 3 and 4 for the post of 'staff Nurse'; and (iii) to issue a writ of mandamus to the respondent 1 to consider the case of the petitioner for selection and appointment as staff Nurse.

( 2 ) THE respondent 1 is represented by Sri P. S. Rajagopal. Respondents 2, 3 and 4 are represented by Sri Annaiah.

( 3 ) HEARD arguments.

( 4 ) THE brief facts of the case leading to the filing of the writ petition may be stated as under.- the respondent 1 had called for applications for the post of Staff nurses by advertisement in the Deccan Herald dated 28-1-2000 (Annexure-G ). The petitioner applied for the said post. As per interview letter (Annexure-H), the petitioner attended the interview held on 10-5-2000, but she was not selected, though she was meritorious when compared with the selected candidates. Therefore, the petitioner is before this Court on the following grounds.- (I) that the action of the Institute in ignoring the meritorious record of the petitioner, while selecting candidates for the post of Staff Nurse is bad in law; (ii) that there is ulterior motive in the selection of the candidates; (iii) that the Selection Committee has exercised its authority arbitrarily; (iv) that the Institute, has violated Articles 14 and 16 of the constitution of India; (v) that the Institute being a deemed University has riot followed the Rules and Regulations in the exercise of power.

( 5 ) THE respondent 1-Institute has filed statement of objections stating that on scrutiny, it found 1232 candidates were eligible (out of 1679 applications) and 1024 candidates including the petitioner attended the interview. The Selection Committee interviewed the candidates and, after ranking them strictly in accordance with the marks secured by them in the selection process, selected and recommended 93 candidates for being appointed as Staff Nurse. The director of the Institute, who is the Appointing Authority accepted the select list and issued appointment orders to the selected candidates on 30-5-2000 and all of them have reported for duty long ago. The petitioner, who belongs to General Merit category could not be appointed since she did not come within the number of vacancies, for which recruitment was made. It is further contended that in the absence of any allegation of mala fides, this Court, in its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, cannot substitute its opinion on merit and suitability of candidates for appointment in place of the opinion formed by the Selection Committee, which consisted of eminent persons who have made the selection as per the best evaluation and assessment of merit of each of the candidates. However, the writ petition challenging the selection and appointment cannot be entertained in the absence of selected and appointed candidates being made parties to the writ petition. Therefore, prayed for dismissal of the writ petition.

( 6 ) THE respondents 2 to 4 have filed joint statement of objections contending that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents belong to OBC, SC and General Merit categories, respectively, and the 1st respondent-Institute has selected them following the due procedure, and they have already assumed duties and working and there is no merit in this case.

( 7 ) THE learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner vehemently submitted that the petitioner has passed Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery in II Division; thereafter, registered her name with the karnataka State Nursing Council under Register No. 21144; the petitioner has worked for 2 years in the Church of South India