The main legal point established in the judgment is that the relevant date for ascertaining entitlement of teachers for appointment as Headmasters is the date of occurrence of the vacancy, and that the appointment shall be according to seniority from the seniority list prepared and maintained under the rules. The court emphasized the need for ascertainable standards and unalterable criteria for appointment, and the automatic nature of exemption from test qualifications upon attaining the age of 50 years.

1. These two Original Petitions are filed by the senior most High School Assistant and the Manager of J. M. High School, Vakathanam. The issue involves the appointment of the Headmaster of the school. The post fell vacant on the retirement on 31-3-1984 of the erstwhile Headmaster Sri. V. I. Abraham. The vacancy bad to be filled up under R.44 Chap.14-A of the Kerala Education Rules (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Rules'). The qualifications for appointment as Headmaster of High Schools is prescribed in R.44A Chap.14-A of the Rules. A minimum service qualification of 12 years of continuous graduate service, a pass in the test in the Kerala Education Act and the Rules, and a pass in Account Test (Lower) conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission are the qualifications prescribed for this purpose. R.44B(2) provides that, "persons who attain the age of 50 years will be granted permanent exemption from passing the rests."

2. The petitioner in OP 9564/86 was the senior most High School Assistant in the school. He had not acquired the test qualifications. However, he attained the age of 50 years of age on 3-8-1984, whereby he stood exempted from possession of test qualifications because of the provisions contained in R.44B(2) Chap.14-A of the Rules. The 6th respondent, who was one of the junior teachers, bad acquired all the necessary qualifications prescribed in R.44A Chap.14-A of the Rules before the vacancy arose on 1-4-1984. There was another teacher junior to the petitioner and senior to the 6th respondent, who bad completed 50 years of age before 1-4-1984 and who could therefore, have claimed to be fully qualified in view of the exemption visualised by R.44B(2) Chap.14-A of the Rules. The 6th respondent filed a petition dated 23-3-1984 claiming that he might be appointed as the Headmaster, since be was the only qualified person entitled for such appointment in terms of R.44A read with R.43 Chap.14-A of the Rules. However, the Manager appointed the petitioner as Teacher-in-charge with effect from 31-3-1984. The 6th respondent then filed OP 3068/84. That original petition was disposed of by judgment dated 13-12-1984 directing that the Manager would make the appointment strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Kerala Education Rules. The Manager thereafter appointed the petitioner as Headmaster on 20-12-1984 in view of the fact that he had earned exemption and had thus become qualified for appointment as Headmaster. That appointment was approved by the District Educational Officer on 4-1-1985. The 6th respondent filed an appeal before the Deputy Director of Education against the approval of the appointment of the petitioner. The Deputy Director of Education, Kottayam allowed the appeal by order dated 31-5-1985. He held that the only person who was qualified on the date of occurrence of the vacancy., viz. 1-4-84, was the 6th respondent, and he ought to have been appointed as the Headmaster. He also held that the petitioner and the other teacher who was senior to the 6th respondent had not applied for exemption from test qualification on attaining the age of 50 years; and that being the position, neither of them was qualified for appointment by virtue of the exemption. He, therefore, set aside the order of the District Educational Officer, and directed the Manager to take immediate steps to appoint a fully qualified HSA as Headmaster against the retirement vacancy as per the Kerala Education Rules. The petitioners filed appeals before the Director of Public Instruction against Ext. R6 (e) (in OP 9564/86) order issued by the Deputy Director of Education, Kottayam. The 6th respondent thereafter filed OP No. 10873/85 seeking the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the Director of Public Instruction to dispose of the appeals filed by the petitioners. That Original Petition was disposed of by Ext. R6(f) judgment directing that final orders on the appeals should be passed within a period not exceeding on