JUDGMENT :

K. BABU, J.

1. The judgment dated 19.9.2018 in Writ Petition No. 26224 of 2018, rendered by a learned Single Judge of this Court, is under challenge in this intra-court appeal filed under Section 5 of the Kerala High Court Act.

2. Appellants are respondents 1 to 3 in the Writ Petition. The writ petitioner is the sole respondent in this appeal.

3. We have heard the learned Senior Counsel Smt. Sumathy Dandapani appearing for the appellants and Sri. S.P. Aravindakshan Pillay, learned counsel appearing for the respondent.

4. The relevant facts required to appreciate the rival contentions are extracted below:

The respondent is a post graduate with Ph.D in Chemistry working as Research Associate in CSIR. She belongs to OBC, non-creamy layer category. Appellant No. 1 issued Ext.P1 notification as per Advt. No. 23/31.10.2017 inviting applications for appointment to various posts including that of Technical Assistant in Chemistry, of which one vacancy each was notified in general category, OBC and Scheduled Caste category. The last date fixed for submitting online application was 2