The notification and Rules of procedure provide for advising candidates for all vacancies reported and pending, and those arising during the currency of the list, in accordance with their merit and subject to reservation and rotation rules.

K.A. Abdul Gafoor, J.

Ext. P1 is a notification issued by the Public Service Commission on 14.6.1988 inviting application to the post of Field Worker in Health Department in the districts of Trivandrum, Alleppey, Ernakulam and Kannur. A written test was held on 29.4.1994 and a ranked list of candidates advised for appointment was published on 21.12.1995, after more than 6 years. The petitioner submits that appointment from the said list shall not exceed the vacancies notified in Ext. P1. In other words, the petitioner submits that, when a notification is issued by a recruiting agency specifying number of posts no candidates in excess of the vacancies so notified shall be appointed from the list prepared pursuant to that notification. The petitioner belongs to Alleppey District. Therefore, the petitioner prays that the list prepared by the Public Service Commission pursuant to Ext. P1 shall not be operated for appointment of candidates in excess of 22 vacancies notified in Ext. P1. Consequently, he seeks for a direction commanding the respondents not to appoint any candidate from that list in excess of such 22' vacancies.

2. Thus, the issue in this Original Petition is whether the Public Service Commission can advise candidates from a list prepared pursuant to a notification, in excess of the vacancies notified even if there are such excess vacancies at the time of publication of the list or 'further vacancies had arisen during the currency of the list.

3. The petitioner had not completed 18 years of age on the relevant date fixed in Ext. P1 notification and was therefore, not eligible to apply for appointment to the post. The petitioner submits that large number of candidates are advised from the list prepared pursuant to Ext. P1. He submits that, if appointments are made exceeding the number of vacancies notified, he will he deprived of his opportunity of being considered for appointment against one of the vacancies of field workers which arose after he became qualified. He submits that every citizen of this country had got a fundamental right of equality of opportunity in the matters relating to employment under the State and that right would entitle him to be considered for such employment. He further submits that it is mandatory that each post is notified and opportunity of being considered afforded to every citizen. In support of this contention, the petitioner has cited the decisions reported in Kerala Agrl. University and Ann v. V.K. Gopinathan Unnithan & Ann (1996 (1) KLT 344 =1996 (1) KLJ 257) and Ashok Kumar and others v. Chairman, Banking Service Recruitment Board and Others (AIR 1996 SC 976),

4. A Division Bench of this Court in Kerala Agrl. University and Ann v. V.K. Gopinathan Unnithan & Ann (1996 (1) KLT 344=1996 (1) KLJ 257) held as follows:

"When one vacancy alone was notified, candidates ranked in the select list cannot be appointed to the vacancies that arose subsequently. Recruitment of candidates in excess of the notified vacancy is a denial and deprivation of the constitutional rights of other qualified hands under Art.14 read with Art.16(1) of the Constitution of India. Therefore, a person included in the select list cannot be appointed to the subsequent vacancies, which were not covered by the Notification. Any appointment to the vacancies that had arisen subsequently and which were not notified for recruitment is unconstitutional". (Emphasis applied)

In that case, only one vacancy in the post of professor of statistics was notified. The notification did not cover any other vacancy. It was in the above circumstances, this court held that recruitment to the vacancies i n excess of that notified amounts to violation of Art.14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. The Division Bench has followed the decision in Ashok Kumar and Others v. Chairman, Banking Service Recruitment Board and Others (AIR 1996 SC 976). In that case, there were 960 vacancies in the State Bank of India and 1713 vacancies in other