The main legal point established in the judgment is that once the selection process has been completed and the statutory Selection Committee has recommended the appointments, the State has no role but to notify the appointments. The State's inaction in this regard was deemed arbitrary and unjustified.

JUDGMENT

G.S. Sandhawalia , J. - Prayer in the present writ petition, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by 7 petitioners, is for issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari, for quashing the action of the State Government whereby the duly conducted selection process for appointment to the posts of Members of District Consumer Forums which was initiated on the advertisement dated 15.12.2018 (Annexure P-2) was scrapped allegedly arbitrarily in a completely illegal manner without there being any justifiable and cogent reason.

2. Further directions are sought for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus to grant appointment to the petitioners as Members of the District Consumer Forums by issuing the requisite notification as the selection process has already been done by the statutory Selection Committee constituted as per the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, the 1986 Act') and the Punjab Consumer Protection (Appointment, Salary, Allowances and Conditions of Service of President and Members of the State Commission and District Forum) Rules, 2018 (for short, the 2018 Rules').

3. It is the admitted case that the petitioners' names had been recommended after proper selection for appointment by respondent No.2, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Punjab vide its letter dated 23.12.2019 (Annexure P-7) on the basis of which the prayer is sought for. It is pertinent to notice that in the present writ petition, notice was issued on 27.08.2020 along with notice regarding stay and during the pendency of the writ petition, after filing of the written statement on 09.12.2020, an order dated 01.12.2020 (Annexure A-1) is reported to have been passed by respondent No.1 whereby the decision to cancel the recruitment of Members has been taken and to initiate the recruitment process again. The same having been passed during the pendency of the writ petition and not having been relied upon in the written statement, has, thus, been assailed by counsel for the petitioners and it is prayed that the same be quashed.

4. The reasoning given in the said order is that in the advertisement which was issued, the eligibility criteria had wrongly been mentioned that the person for appointment of Members is to be less 35 years of age whereas it should have been not less than 35 years. Reliance is also placed upon the letter issued by the Government of India dated 21/22.09.2020 (Annexure R-1) that vacancies of Presidents and Members in the said Commissions and District Commissions are henceforth to be filled up as per the provisions contained in the Consumers Protection Act, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the 'New Act') and the new Rules and where the selection process is not complete though which has commenced as per the old provisions will also be made as per the new Rules. Resultantly, the justification is that there was a mistake in the advertisement and many of the eligible candidates would have been deprived from applying to the advertised posts and in view of the letter dated 21/22.09.2020, the appointment orders cannot be issued and that the selection process will now be made under the 2019 Act.

5. Counsel for the petitioners has also placed on record fresh advertisement issued on 08.01.2021 (Annexure A-1) for 32 posts of Members on whole time basis for the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums in the State of Punjab, wherein, applications have been invited and the cut-off date for applying has been fixed as 10.02.2021.

6. Thus, the short and interesting question which arises is whether the petitioners have any absolute right on account of the selection process not having been taken to its logical end by notifying the appointments under Section 9(a) and 10 of the 1986 Act and that whether they have to suffer the process of applying again, in pursuance of the new advertisement under t