JUDGMENT :

Bishop Hodges Higher Secondary School, Mavelikkara, is an aided school managed by the Corporate Manager, CMS schools, and is governed by the provisions of the Kerala Education Act, 1959 and the Rules framed there under. These writ petitions have been filed by two claimants vying for the post of HSST (Zoology) under the 5th respondent management.

2. A thumbnail sketch of the facts are as under:

(a) On 1.6.2018, a vacancy to the post of HSST (Zoology) occurred in the school. Smt. Susan George, the petitioner in W.P.(C) No.2548 of 2021, was working as HSA (Natural Science) in B.I.G.H.S, Pallom, an aided school under the management of the Corporate Manager. She asserts that she is fully eligible to be appointed as HSST (Zoology) as per the provisions of Chapter XXXII of the KER as she is the senior-most HSA qualified to be appointed as HSST (Zoology) in the school.

(b) However, the Manager, published a public notice calling for appointments after constituting a selection committee that included a Government nominee and Smt. Tigi Christy Thomas, the petitioner in W.P(C) No.70