Point of Law: Repugnancy under Article 254 arises only if both Parliamentary (or existing law) and State law are referable to List III in Seventh Schedule to Constitution of India.

ORDER :

Heard the learned Senior counsel Sri Aditya Sondhi for the petitioners in W.P.No.10575/2021 and the learned Senior counsel Sri Sandesh Chouta for the petitioners in W.P. No.17163/2021 and the learned Senior counsel Sri Reuben Jacob for respondent No.1, learned AAG Sri Dhyan Chinnappa along with Smt. Shilpa S Gogi, learned HCGP for respondent No.2 and Sri Udaya Holla, learned senior counsel for respondent Nos.4 to 58 and Smt. Aruna P Chavan, learned counsel for respondent No.59.

2. As both writ petitions are canvassed on common grounds of fact and law, both petitions are taken up for consideration by this common order.

3. The petitioners are before this Court being aggrieved by the order passed by the KSAT, Bengaluru whereby the Hon’ble Tribunal was pleased to reject the applications preferred by the petitioners (who were the applicants) by its order dated 12.05.2021.

4. The bare facts necessary to dispose off the litigation, are that the first respondent issued a notification bearing No.PS C 1 RTB/2/2017 dated 23.03.2018, thereby inviting applications from eligible candidates for the post of Drug Inspector in the third respondent department. The notification came to be issued under the KPSC Rules, 2006, 2013, 2015. A copy of which is produced as Annexure A1. Under the said notification the eligibility criteria for the prospective candidates was fixed as follows:

(a) must be holder of B.Pharma degree in Pharmacy;

(b) must have put in a service of not less than eighteen months of experience in the manufacturing and or testing of Schedule C and/or C1 drugs included in the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.

And it is the second criteria which has turned contentious.

5. That the process of selection of candidates commenced and resulted in completion with publication of a list of candidates who were to be interviewed and the said list was published on 07.11.2019 (Annexure A3). While so, a week thereafter an entirely new list came to be published on the website of the first respondent commission i.e., on 12.11.2020, whereby the original list of eligible candidates published on 07.11.2019 came to be substituted and the same was done by altering the selection procedure and is alleged to have been carried out in a prejudicial manner.

6. It is the case of the petitioners that the process of receiving applications started on 26.03.2018 with the last date for submission being 24.04.2018. That subsequently an addendum came to be issued on 24.04.2018 and last date was extended to 24.05.2018 and the examination dates were scheduled on 13.12.2018 and 16.12.2018 and all the petitioners herein had cleared the examination conducted on the dates noted supra.

7. That pursuant to the publication of the results of the written examination, a merit list of the candidates came to be published and the candidates therein were notified of being eligible to participate in the interview/viva-voce. That pursuant to the same, a list of candidates eligible for being interviewed was also drawn up and were also called for document verification and the list of candidates so invited for interview and document verification is produced as Annexure-A4. Subsequent to the process of document verification the petitioners were issued letters inviting them for interview on various dates i.e., 21.11.2019, 22.11.2019, 25.11.2019, 26.11.2019 and 27.11.2019. A compilation of the letters inviting them for interview is produced as A5 to A18. That out of the total list of candidates, whose names were put up on 22.11.2019, a fair number of the candidates were interviewed and the remaining of the candidates were issued endorsements reading as under:

“your interview has been postponed and you will be informed after documents verification”

A copy of which is produced as Annexure A19 to A21. Some of the candidates were also intimated by e-mails.

8. That while so, to the shock and surpr