Ajay Kumar Tripathi, J.

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

2. The State Bank of India and its authorities, being aggrieved by the judgment dated 30.03.2015 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in CWJC No. 3249 of 2011, have invoked the intra-court appeal jurisdiction of this Court by way of Letters Patent Appeal.

3. The respondent no.1 in the present appeal moved this Court in its writ jurisdiction for a writ of mandamus directing the respondent-Bank and its authorities to appoint the petitioner on the post of Clerk in the Bank against the vacancies published vide Advertisement No. CRPD/CR/2009-10/04. The petitioner claimed that he, despite having secured 131 marks, was not appointed, whereas the last candidate who had only 121 marks out of the total marks of 235 got employment.

4. In order to claim his appointment, the petitioner raised an issue that the respondent-Bank in the midst of the selection process introduced a minimum qualifying marks in interview, therefore the respondents changed the selection procedure itself which amounts to changing the rules of game as has been held in several judicial pronouncements of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India. The learned Single Judge has upheld the contention of the petitioner and allowed the writ application. We have been called upon to examine the legality and validity of the impugned judgment passed by the learned Single Judge.

Case of the Writ Petitioner

5. The brief facts as appearing from the records of the writ proceeding are as under:-

The Central Recruitment and Promotion Department (in short 'CRPD') issued an advertisement bearing no. CRPD/CR/2009-10/04 dated 23.07.2009 for recruitment of clerical staff in the State Bank of India. A copy of the advertisement has been brought on record as Annexure-1 to the writ application. A glance over the advertisement would show that the vacancies were notified for each of the Circles and the States. The advertisement besides prescribing the educational qualification and age clearly lays down the selection procedure in paragraph 11 which is reproduced hereunder for ready reference:-

"All eligible candidates should apply on line before the last date for registering the applications:

(a) Final Selection will be made on the basis of performance in the written test and interview taken together. Merely satisfying the eligibility norms does not entitle a candidate to be called for written test or interview.

(b) The written test will be of Objective type consisting of (i) General Awareness (ii) General English (iii) Quantitative Aptitude (vi) Reasoning Ability and (v) Marketing Aptitude/Computer Knowledge. The questions in these objective tests, except for the test of General English, will be printed in bilingual i.e. English & Hindi.

There will be negative marks for the wrong answers in the objective Tests 1/4 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer. Candidate will have to pass in each of the objective tests. The passing marks in each of the tests will be decided by the Bank on the basis of the performance of all the competing candidates taken together in each test to a minimum required level. Candidates are also required to score a minimum 40% (35% for ST/SC/PWD/XS) marks on aggregate to be considered for being called for interview. Bank reserves the right to vary this cut off.

Note:

(i) Other detailed information regarding the written examination will be given in the "Acquaint Yourself Booklet", which will be made available to the eligible candidates along with the call letter for the test.

(ii) Interviews: Depending upon the number of vacancies, only a certain number of candidates from amongst those who qualify by ranking high enough in the merit will be called for interview and/or proficiency test in ratio of maximum 3 candidates for each vacancy. Final selection will be made on the basis of candidate's performance in the written test and interview taken together."

6. Admittedly, the petitioner having requisite qualificati