1. The petitioner. an Advocate. enrolled in 1964 was a junior Government Pleader in the High Court from 1974 to 1976 and now. holds the post of the District Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor at Ernakulam from 21-2-1984. She is an Anglo Indian belonging to the Latin Catholic community. She Was one of the applicants for the post of a District Judge and her name was. however. not recommended by the High Court to the Government. though the panel of names submitted included fourteen names. The selection was based on an interview conducted by three senior judges of this Court. The petitioner contends that based on her performance at the interview. she was awarded very high marks to merit her inclusion within the first five and thus she was entitled to be selected on merit. But still her name was not recommended. even though the selection committee found 15 persons including herself "eligible for consideration". The majority of the committee held that the petitioner was 'ineligible for selection' in view of the criterion laid down in R.3(2)(c) of the Special Rules which insisted that the candidates concerned shall be of good character and thus it came to the conclusion