The court emphasized the presumption of bona fide exercise of power and the reluctance to interfere with the decision of an expert body.

JUDGMENT :

Tapabrata Chakraborty, J.

1. All the above four appeals have been preferred against the judgment dated 4th May, 2023 passed in two writ petitions heard analogously being WPA 18906 of 2022 preferred by one Laipubam Upendro Sharma (in short, Upendro) and WPA 28493 of 2022 preferred by one Shyama Prasad Chattopadhyay (in short, Shyama). The appeal being MAT 793 of 2023 has been preferred by Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (in short, EZCC), the appeal being MAT 796 of 2023 has been preferred by one Ashis Kumar Giri (in short, Ashis), the appeal being MAT 838 of 2023 has been preferred by Shyama and the appeal being MAT 845 of 2023 has been preferred by the Union of India (in short, UOI).

2. Shorn of unnecessary details the facts are that EZCC, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (in short, the said Ministry) published an advertisement dated 17th/23rd July 2021 inviting applications for filling up the post of Director, EZCC, Kolkata. Upendro, Shyama, Ashis along with others applied for the said post. As per decision of the said Ministry, a Scrutiny Committee consisting of four members was constituted for scrutiny of the applications received in the office of the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal cum Chairperson of EZCC. The said Committee held its meeting on 13th May, 2022 and prepared a list of eleven suitable candidates out of a total of forty-one applicants for appearing in the interview before the Search-cum-Selection Committee (in short, Search Committee). The Search Committee consisting of six members was constituted as per the Recruitment Rules for the post of Director, EZCC, as would be explicit from the memo dated 10th May, 2022 issued by the Under Secretary to said Ministry and it conducted the interview on 20th May, 2022 virtually in which over and above the eleven short listed candidates, twenty more candidates were interviewed. Five members unanimously prepared a panel in which Ashis stood first and a dissenting member being the Joint Secretary (ZCC, MOC) submitted a separate panel in which one Madhurima Baruah Sen was first. In both the panels, Upendro secured the second position. The panel prepared by the majority members was approved by the said Ministry and the Chairman, EZCC issued the appointment letter in favour of Ashis, the first empanelled candidate, on 5th July, 2022. Subsequent thereto, in response to an application dated 14th July, 2022 submitted under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005, Upendro was forwarded several documents pertaining to the selection process.

3. Mr. Gupta, learned advocate appearing for the EZCC submits that the learned Single Judge erred in law in observing that the Governor as the Chairman of the Search Committee chose to override the decision of the Scrutiny Committee and to widen the scope of selection process by interviewing 20 candidates over and above the eleven candidates short-listed by the Scrutiny Committee. The Search Committee, having the expertise, was not divested of the authority to scrutinise the acts of the Scrutiny Committee.

4. He contends that the function of the Scrutiny Committee was to examine the applications and to short-list the eligible candidates. Further process for filling up the post was left to the Search Committee, as would be explicit from the memo dated 12th May, 2021 issued on behalf of the said Ministry. It is thus unreasonable to construe that the word ‘selection’ only as the factum of preparation of the select list.

5. He argues that the Hon’ble Governor did not act on his own discretion in calling further twenty candidates in the interview. The said decision to include all the candidates, who met the eligibility criteria was taken upon due deliberation and discussion with the members of the Search Committee. Such fact would be explicit from the trail mails issued contemporaneously.

6. He contends that the integrity of the members of the Search Committee has not been doubted in the writ petition