The Tribunals and Courts have limited jurisdiction under judicial review to interfere with the merit and selection lists prepared by expert bodies unless there is clear evidence of mala fide, bias, or violation of statutory rules; a candidate’s subjective reassessment of merit is insufficient to invalidate a selection.

ORDER

Per: - Ram Mohan Johri, Administrative Member

1. The SWP No.33/2019 was transferred from the Hon’ble High Court

of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and was registered as T.A

No.1654/2020 by the Registry of this Tribunal.

2. The present matter was filed before the Hon’ble High Court seeking

following relief: -

a) allow the present writ petition;

b) quash Merit List [Annexure-A to Notification No. 074-PSC

(DR-S) of 2018 dated 04.12.2018], for the post of Assistant

Professor in the discipline of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology (ENT),

Health and Medical Education Department, to the extent, the

private respondent instead of being shown as "absent" has been

shown to have secured 68.61 marks;

c) quash the Select List [Annexure-B to Notification No. 074-PSC

(DR-S) of 2018 dated 04.12.2018] for the post of Assistant

Professor, Govt. Medical College, Kathua in the discipline of

Oto-Rhino-Laryngology under (ENT) Open Merit Category in

pursuance of Advertisement Notification No. 01-PSC (DR-P) of

2018 dated 17.01.2018, to the extent, the name of private

respondent figures as the lone selected candidate for GMC,

Kathua in the aforesaid subject; with further direction to set

aside the selection of private respondent;

d) command and direct the respondent No. 2, to give weightage of

3.75 marks (instead of 3.50) for 15 publications of the

petitioner and further give weightage of 1.00-mark (instead of

0.00) for presentations of two papers at National Level

conferences and add the above referred additional 0.25 + 1.00

(i.e. 1.25) marks in the present total (66.86) of the petitioner,

taking the total of the petitioner to 68.11;

e) command and direct the respondents to take into consideration

only 5 publications of the private respondent (instead of 9 made

by resorting to cuttings and interpolations) and thereafter

award only 1.25 marks to the private respondent for 5

publications (instead of 2.25 for 9 publications) and bring the

total score of the private respondent down to 67.61 (68.61-

1.00);

f) command and direct the respondent PSC to select the petitioner

as Assistant Professor, Govt. Medical College, Kathua, on the

basis of the new total 68.11 number of marks scored by the

petitioner after setting aside the selection of the petitioner

whose total score now came down to 67.61 from earlier 68.61.

g) restrain the respondent Commission from recommending the

name of private respondent for appointment to the post of

Assistant Professor, Govt. Medical College, Kathua in the

discipline of Oto-Rhinolaryngology (ENT) under Open Merit

Category in pursuance of Advertisement Notification No. 01-

PSC (DR-P) of 2018 dated 17.01.2018;

h) ANY other writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court

may deem fit or proper in the facts and circumstances of the

case.

3. The facts of the case as pleaded by the petitioner in his pleadings are

as follows: -

a) The present Transfer Application arises out of SWP No.

33/2019, which stood transferred from the Hon’ble High Court

of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu to this Tribunal and was

registered as T.A. No. 1654/2020.

b) The applicant, Dr. Manish Kumar Sharma, possesses the

requisite postgraduate qualification in the discipline of Oto-

Rhino-Laryngology, i.e., ENT, and claims to have the requisite

teaching experience f