Candidates in Ranked Lists retain rights for appointments post-amalgamation of District Banks, and authorities must act fairly by assessing existing vacancies and complying with statutory recruitment provisions.

JUDGMENT :

Nitin Jamdar, C.J.

The subject matter of controversy in this group of appeals arising from the judgments of learned Single Judges of this Court relates to the post of Clerk/Cashier in the erstwhile District Co-operative Banks in Kerala. Ranked Lists were prepared by the Kerala Public Service Commission pursuant to the selection process; however, before any appointments could be made from the Ranked Lists, the District Co-operative Banks in the State were amalgamated with the Kerala State Co-operative Bank. Since the candidates included in the Ranked Lists were not appointed, they filed writ petitions seeking appropriate directions for their appointments. Several petitions were filed by individual candidates included in the Ranked Lists, and the dates and events would differ in each matter, but the legal issue being the same in all the appeals, they are dealt with by this common judgment.

2. In one set of writ petitions (Group ‘A’), the learned Single Judge (Devan Ramachandran, J.) held in favour of the Petitioners/Candidates and issued certain directions. In the other set of writ petitions (Group ‘B’), the learned Single Judge (Amit Rawal, J.) dismissed the petitions. From the judgment rendered in Group ‘A’ petitions, in favour of the Petitioners/ Candidates, two sets of appeals have been preferred – one by the Kerala State Co-operative Bank Limited (the State Bank) and in some cases by the District Co-operative Banks (District Banks), and the other by the Secretary, Department of Co-operation, as well as the Registrar and Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, State of Kerala. From Group ‘B’, the candidates whose petitions were dismissed have filed appeals challenging the dismissal.

3. (i) Group ‘A’ petitions consists of W.P.(C) Nos. 26338/2017, 26491/2017, 26956/2017, 11657/2018, 29805/2018, 38191/2018, 11109/2019, 22690/2019, 23087/2019, 27908/2019, 27938/2019, 29955/2019, 31456/2019, 33040/2019, 33724/2019, 33837/2019, 34299/2019, 34895/2019, 35177/2019, 260/2020, 742/2020, 4525/2021, and 22082/2021.

(ii) From Group ‘A’, the first set of appeals by the Banks are W.A. Nos. 1736/2022, 1794/2022, 1805/2022, 1806/2022, 1809/2022, 1815/2022, 1830/2022, 1840/2022, 1843/2022, 1850/2022, 1854/2022, 1859/2022, 1880/2022, 1889/2022, 1904/2022, 1938/2022, 1939/2022, 1943/2022, 1963/2022, 1968/2022, 1977/2022, 1979/2022, 2004/2022, 2019/2022, 764/2023, and 1124/2023.

(iii) The second set of appeals from Group ‘A’ by the State are, W.A. Nos. 969/2023, 1271/2023, 1461/2023, 1542/2023, 1551/2023, 1564/2023, 1565/2023, 1568/2023, 1580/2023, 1583/2023, 1585/2023, 1586/2023, 1589/2023, 1591/2023, 1594/2023, 1649/2023, 1652/2023, 1685/2023, 1689/2023, 1856/2023, 1901/2023, 1907/2023, 1993/2023, 2006/2023, 2009/2023, 2025/2023, and 2135/2023.

4. Group ‘B’ petitions consist of W.P.(C) Nos. 31786/2018 and 29057/2019, filed by fifteen candidates who were included in the Ranked Lists for appointment to the post of Clerk/Cashier. From Group ‘B’, the appeals filed by the Petitioners/Candidates are W.A. Nos. 608/2021, 622/2021 and 637/2021. There is another petition, that is, W.P.(C) No. 1866/2020, filed by the candidates included in the Ranked List, who belong to the Other Backward Class. This petition was disposed of by judgment dated 23 February 2021 (Amit Rawal, J.). From that judgment, W.A. No. 853/2021 is filed by the Petitioners/Candidates.

5. The Appellant – State and the Appellant – Kerala State Co-operative Bank Limited in the appeals arising from Group ‘A’ petitions are referred to as ‘the Appellants’. The Respondents in the appeals from the Group ‘A’ petiti