The petitioners are provisional conductors in KSRTC. They challenge Ext.P2 notification issued by the PSC, calling for applications for recruitment of reserve conductors in KSRTC. They having entered such category through the Employment Exchange, one can visualize their anxiety of being displaced when regular hands are recruited through PSC. The plea raised is that to be a conductor, one should possess a conductor's licence in terms of Section 29(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, for short, the "MV Act", and such qualification not having been prescribed in Ext.P2, the selection process itself is bad. PSC's Ext.P4 circular, that qualifications acquired after the date of notification will not be taken into account, is also pressed into service. On the basis of these materials, the petitioners seek a declaration that the examination conducted by the PSC is illegal.

2. Section 29(1) of the MV Act states that no person shall act as a conductor of a stage carriage, unless he holds an effective conductor's licence issued to him authorising him to act as such conductor; and no person shall employ or permit any person who is not so licensed to act as a conductor of a stage carri