JUDGMENT :

T.S. Sivagnanam, J.

1. The Member Secretary, Teachers Recruitment Board, and three others are the appellants in this writ appeal and they have questioned the correctness of the order and direction issued in W.P. (MD) No. 1128 of 2018, dated 28.02.2018, filed by the respondent herein.

2. The first appellant issued Notification No. 4 of 2008, for recruitment to the posts of Lecturers in Home Science and other subjects. The provisional selection list prepared in the order of merit following the communal rotation was published. One candidate by name S. Selvarani belonging to scheduled caste community scored 23 marks. The respondent had scored 21 marks and as the cut-off mark for scheduled caste community candidates was 23, she was not selected. In the same year i.e. 2008, the first appellant issued another recruitment notification for scheduled caste and schedule tribe candidates for the post of Lecturer in Home Science. The respondent participated in the said selection and scored 19 marks. One other candidate, by name, B. Bhuvaneswari also scored 19 marks and as there was a tie between both the candidates, the first appellant selected B. Bhuvaneswari as she was elder in age to the respondent being born on 25.11.1968, whereas the respondent was born on 09.08.1978. According to the first appellant, all the vacancies in the subject Home Science were filled-up in the recruitment done during 2008.

3. In the recruitment conducted pursuant to the Notification No. 4 of 2008, the respondent's case was not considered, on the ground that she did not possess the requisite educational qualification. The respondent filed W.P. (MD) No. 3947 of 2011 to set aside the information furnished under the Right to Information Act intimating about her lack of qualification and to direct the first appellant to select and appoint her in the post of Lecturer in Home Science in anyone of the Government College.

4. The said writ petition was allowed, by order dated 21.11.2016, by following the earlier order in W.P. (MD) No. 15796 of 2009, dated 26.07.2010. The question, which fell for consideration was whether M.Sc. Degree in Food and Nutrition, Food Science Management and Food Resource Management could be considered for recruitment to the post of Lecturer in Home Science. This question was answered in favour of the respondent and the respondent, who possessed M.Sc., Degree in Food Science and Nutrition and M.Phil., in the same subject and passed NET was directed to be considered for appointment as Lecturer in Home Science. Thus, the qualification possessed by the respondent was found to be the appropriate qualification to be considered for appointment to the post of Lecturer in Home Science.

5. The Government filed writ appeal in W.A. (MD) No. 446 of 2017, against the order dated 21.11.2016 passed in W.P. (MD) No. 3947 of 2011 and the same was disposed of by Judgment dated 15.06.2017. Subsequently, a contempt petition was filed by the respondent in Cont. P. (MD) No. 590 of 2017 stating that in spite of the Court having held that the respondent has the necessary educational qualification for being appointed as Lecturer in Home Science, the first appellant had not appointed her in the said post. After the disposal of the writ appeal in W.A. (MD) No. 446 of 2017, the first appellant passed an order dated 13.07.2017 setting out the reasons for non-selection of the respondent. This order was impugned in the writ petition, which was allowed by the learned Single Judge and challenging the same, the Teachers Recruitment Board and three others are before us by way of this writ appeal.

6. We have heard Mr. V.R. Shanmuganathan, learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the appellants and Dr. R. Rajagobal, learned counsel appearing for the respondent.

7. The Writ Court, while allowing the writ petition, held that the respondent possessed the requisite educational qualification for being appointed as Lecturer in Home Science and she cannot be thrown out on the