J U D G M E N T

A.Muhamed Mustaque, J.

On 11/12/2019 the Kerala Public Service Commission invited applications from candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe for the post of Range Forest Officer. As per the notification, the candidates will be selected on the basis of walking test, written test and interview.

2. The manual issued by the Kerala Public Service Commission (“the PSC”, for short) covers the procedure to be followed in awarding the marks. Para.339 of the manual stipulates the basis of the marking as follows:

339. Basis of Marking (i) If selection to a post is finalised by written test and interview, the maximum marks for interview shall be 20% of the maximum marks for the Written Test. The Basis of ranking in such cases shall be marks for the Written Test + Marks for the interview.

(ii) In the case of selections finalised on the basis of qualifying marks and interview, basis of marking will be the percentage of marks for the qualifying examination plus interview marks out of 20.

(iii) If the selection is made on the basis of the aggregate of the percentage of marks for the qualifying examination, the percentage of marks for the written test and the marks for int