ORDER :

These eight cases, six of them filed in PIL jurisdiction, regardless of the tenor of pleadings broadly raise the issue relating to the norms of appointment and the normative process of selection & appointment to the office of the Chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (hereafter ‘KSPCB’). It is relevant to state the principal prayers made in each of the petitions. They are as under:

i) In W.P.Nos.9526/2020 & 9923/2020 (GM-RES-PIL), the prayer is for the quashment of the Government Order dated 19.06.2020 through which the State Government has issued the “Guidelines for nomination, Terms and conditions of service of Chairman, Members and appointment of Member Secretary of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (6 of 1974)”. They also seek a direction to issue these guidelines afresh strictly adhering to the observations of the Apex Court made in Techi Tagi Tara vs. Rajendra Singh Bhandari, (2018) 11 SCC 734. A prayer is made for setting aside the appointment made in terms of i