The cancellation of a selection process must be bona fide and for appropriate reasons, and the State is bound to respect the comparative merit of the candidates.

JUDGMENT

G.S. Sandhawalia , J. - Prayer in the present writ petition, filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India is for issuance of direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to appoint the petitioner on the post of Assistant Director, Care Support & Treatment (CST), as per the advertisement dated 06.11.2019 (Annexure P-1). Writ in the nature of certiorari is also sought to be issued for quashing the action of respondent No.2-Society whereby the whole recruitment process for the said post had been cancelled, without there being any justifiable reason. Resultantly, directions are sought to the respondents restraining them from issuing fresh selection process for the post in question.

2. The stand of the respondents is that the proceedings of the Selection Committee were prepared but not signed by all members of the Committee, mainly the Director Health Services-cum-Chairman, Administrative Committee, CSACS and therefore, direction was issued to scrap the selection process. A fresh advertisement had been issued on 09.01.2021, which is admittedly during the pendency of the writ petition and the petitioner was free to apply for the said post and could be considered on merits. It is also admitted that the Project Director, Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society (CSACS) had proceeded on ExIndia Leave from 27.01.2020 to 01.04.2020 and could not return till 07.09.2020 due to the Corona Pandemic and therefore, justification has been given not to issue the appointment order.

3. The action of the respondents, thus, is to be tested on the touch-stone of the observations of the Apex Court in Shankarsan Dash Vs. Union of India, (1991) 3 SCC 47. If the said action is arbitrary on the face of it and not justifiable, directions are naturally liable to be issued in favour of the petitioner and if the respondents could justify the reasoning to withhold the appointment, the answer has to be given in the negative, against the petitioner.

4. The facts of the case would go on to show that applications were invited for the post of Director (CST) by the Chandigarh State Aids Control Society on contractual basis and selection was to be made on the basis of the written test and interview and the age limit was fixed as 60 years. The salary was to be of a consolidated amount of of Rs.25,000/-. In pursuance of the said advertisement, petitioner having applied sat in the written examination on 16.01.2020 and the result was declared on the same date wherein he secured 60.75 marks out of 70 marks. The candidate second in merit secured 44.25 marks which would be clear from the result appended as Annexure P-8. The interview was also held by a panel consisting of Deputy Director General (IEC, Mainstreaming & LS), National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), New Delhi and Head, Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh and Project Director, Chandigarh State AIDS Control Society presided over by respondent No.4. In pursuance of the said interview, the petitioner was told that the CSACS-respondent No.3 was on Ex-India Leave and decision would be taken after her joining. As noticed above, the Director could not come back to India till 07.09.2020 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the meantime, Dr.G.Dewan, DHScum-Chairman, Administrative Committtee, CSACS-respondent No.4, superannuated, leaving the petitioner in a lurch, which led to the filing of the present writ petition.

5. A perusal of the paperbook would go on to show that fresh advertisement has now been issued for the same post on 09.01.2021 (Annexure P-7) which is on account of the fact that a decision was taken by the respondents on 06.11.2020 regarding scrapping the entire selection process to be scrapped and to initiate fresh selection process on account of these facts. A perusal of Annexure P-8 would also go on to show that out of the 22 candidate who had appeared, 12 candidates had secured more than 50% marks and out of them, 11 had appeared