JUDGMENT

BHARAT P.DESHPANDE, J. - The petitioner is challenging the selection of respondent no. 4 to the post of Physiotherapist.

2. The prayers in the petition are as under:

'a) For an appropriate writ, order or direction thereby quashing the selection process undertaken by respondents 1 to 3 for the post of a physiotherapist at the Goa Medical College in terms of the advertisement dtd. 22/12/2017.

b) For an appropriate writ, order or direction thereby quashing the appointment of respondent no. 4 to the post of physiotherapist (regular post) at the Goa Medical College. c) For a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction thereby directing respondents no. 1 to 3 to consider the petitioner for appointment to the post of a physiotherapist on regular basis at the Goa Medical College.

d) Any other order this Hon'ble Court deems fit and proper under the circumstances.'

3. Heard Mr. Nigel Da Costa Frias, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Deep D. Shirodkar, learned Additional Government Advocate for respondents no. 1 to 3.

4. Mr. Nigel Da Costa Frias, submitted that the petitioner was having more than 7 years of experience as a Physiotherapist and there was no need for conducting any skill test. The panel for the selection did not have any experience or qualification in Physiotherapy to conduct a skill test. Secondly, he contended that the marking pattern for experience was changed from the one which was followed during the earlier recruitment process, which affected the petitioner the most. Thirdly, he claimed that at the time of the alleged skill test, neither the Dean nor the Under Secretary being members of the selection committee remained present and apparently there was manipulation of marks without determining the skills of the candidates. The petitioner having the highest experience of more than 7 years, ought to have been given appropriate marks. He then submitted that without prejudice to his above submissions, there was no question of conducting any skill test. Finally, he claimed that the Recruitment Rules for the said post did not provide for any interview or skill test.

5. Mr. Frias would then claim that the petitioner is a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with more than 66.30% of marks at the final degree level which is certainly more than the selected candidate at the degree level. Therefore, giving equal marks for the degree educational qualification only for the present recruitment test was unjustified as on the earlier occasions educational qualification was considered with a different marking system only based on the percentage earned by each candidate in the final examination. He would therefore submit that the petitioner who got more than 66% marks ought to have been given higher marks whereas respondent no. 4 who secured 58% marks at the Bachelor's degree level ought to have been given lesser marks.

6. Mr. Frias then would submit that there was no requirement for conducting a skill test and that too, by the members of the Selection Committee who were not experts in the subject which resulted in giving arbitrary marks out of 15 marks for the skill test.

7. Mr. Frias then submitted that just prior to the interview, a proforma was published on the website of Goa Medical College for allotment of marks to the candidates for the said post. Though the petitioner filed a representation on 8/2/2018 regarding the proforma used for the previous recruitment, there was no response. He would then submit that the petitioner was called and only a few questions were asked to her by the Head of the Orthopaedic Department, under the guise of a skill test and in fact no such skill test was ever conducted. At that time only two members of the Selection Committee were present, who had no experience in the subject. According to Mr. Frias, there was no necessity to conduct such skill test as the petitioner was having more than 7 years of experience in the field. He, therefore, would submit that the entire selection