Hima Kohli, J. (Oral):--

1. The petitioner has filed the present petition praying inter alia that the respondent/Competition Commission of India (hereinafter referred to as “respondent/CCI’) be directed to consider his candidature for engagement as an Expert in the field of law, by giving weightage to his qualifications and experience.

2. The relevant facts of the case are that on 28.03.2012, the respondent/CCI had published a notice on its website, inviting applications from eligible candidates for engagement of fifteen experts/professional to assist the Commission in the discharge of its functions under the Competition Act. As per Clause 5 of the said notice, the application alongwith copies of supporting documents (viz. educational qualification and experience) was required to be sent to the respondent/CCI by 30.04.2012. The notice issued by the respondent/CCI had clarified that the experts would be engaged in Level I and Level II and those candidates who had higher educational qualifications and experience with exceptional profile would be considered for engagement as Expert (Level III) in the relevant field.

3. Pursuant to the aforesaid notice, the petitioner had submitted his application for being engaged as an Expert in the field of Law for Level-II well before the cutoff date, i.e., before 30.04.2012. The respondent/CCI had conducted interviews for engagement of Experts in Law for Level II on 18.06.2012 and subsequently, on 25-26.10.2012, but the grievance of the petitioner is that he was not called for the interview on either occasion. Aggrieved by the aforesaid action of the respondent/CCI in failing to consider his candidature to the subject post, the petitioner has filed the present petition.

4. The petitioner, who appears in person, submits that he is a practicing advocate and was enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in the year 2006 and ever since then he has been practicing in the Supreme Court of India, the High Court of Delhi and other Courts and Tribunals based in Delhi. He submits that he is holder of a LLB degree, from GGSIP University and though he possesses the essential educational qualifications and experience, as prescribed by the respondent/CCI, his candidature has been arbitrarily overlooked. The petitioner particularly draws the attention of the Court to the additional affidavit filed by him under index dated 30.11.2012, wherein it has been averred that he possesses the desirable higher qualification, having pursued a Post Graduate Diploma in International Trade and Business Laws from the Indian Academy of International Law and that the respondent/CCI had ignored the fact that the petitioner had completed the LLM course from Annamalai University before the second set of interviews for the subject post were conducted by the CCI, in the month of October, 2012.

5. A counter affidavit in opposition to the present petition has been filed by the respondent/CCI, wherein it has been stated that pursuant to issuance of the notice dated 28.03.2012, published by the Commission on its website, proposing to fill up ten vacancies in the field of Economics, two vacancies in the field of Financial Analysis and three vacancies in the field of Law, a total of 148 applications were received by the Commission in the field of Law (71 for Level I, 36 for Level II and 41 for Level III). After scrutiny of the said applications, the respondent/CCI had shortlisted a total of 43 candidates in the field of Law (13 for Level I, 15 for Level II and 15 for Level III). Out of the applications received, the Commission had also created a databank of other eligible candidates to be utilized for future appointment. Thereafter, the candidates who were shortlisted in the field of Law, were called for interviews from 18.06.2012 to 20.06.2012.

6. The Selection Committee constituted by the respondent/CCI for interviewing and selection of the shortlisted candidates comprised of four members (two members of the Commission including one of the me

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