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(iii) to issue any other order as is deemed fit by this Honourable Court in the interest of justice."

7. The allegations raised in this Writ Petition are that the KFRI made changes to the notification approved by the Council and that appointments were going to be made without following reservation rules.

8. According to the petitioner a notification for appointment can be issued by KFRI only on approval by the Executive Committee of the Council; one of the agenda for W.P(C).Nos.6148 of 2016 and c/cases the meeting of the executive committee of the Council held on 29.06.2015 was approval of the advertisement of vacant posts in KFRI. As per Ext.P5(a) minutes the notification was approved with the direction that basic qualification for all the posts shall be first class Post Graduate Degree with Ph.D in the subjects concerned. Petitioner alleged that when Ext.P2 notification was issued, Ph.D with specialization in Wildlife Genetics was also included, whereas it was not a qualification prescribed in Ext.P5. It is also his contention that prescription of 1 st class in Post Graduate Degree is contrary to the rules.

10. The 4th respondent KFRI filed a counter affidavit dated 05.03.2016. It is stated that the post of Scientist- E1 is a senior position at the level of Head of the W.P(C).Nos.6148 of 2016 and c/cases Department to which appointment was being made by promotion. It was stated that direct recruitment to that post was resorted to for the first time in the history of KFRI; those posts were advertised on All India basis and applications were received from various parts of the country and from abroad; Scientist of KFRI are provided with pay scales, promotion norms and other benefits available to Scientists of CSIR under the Government of India. They followed the precedents adopted by the Government of India institutions. It was stated that in view of Ext.R4(a) OM No.9/2/1973-Estt.(SCT) issued on 23.06.1975 by the Dept. of Personnel and Administrative Reforms and Ext.R4(b) OM.No. 360/12/27/94-Estt (ST) dated 13.05.1994, Scientific and Technical posts are exempted from the purview of reservation, according to which reservation of posts for SC, ST and OBC categories applies only to appointments to Scientific and Technical posts and including the lowest group A Scientific post in the respective services and therefore reservation is applicable only to the post of Scientist-B. It was stated that the qualification approved by the executive committee was modified without any wrong intention; as the Scientists in KFRI are provided with pay scale, promotion norms and other W.P(C).Nos.6148 of 2016 and c/cases benefits available to Scientists of CSIR, under the Government of India, KFRI followed the norms adopted by Government of India Institution in similar matter. It was stated that 17.85% of the Scientists in the institute belong to Ezhava community. Therefore that community was excluded from granting reservation for appointment as Scientist.

11. Even though the Council has not filed any statement or counter affidavit in these writ petitions, in W.P.(C) No.12994 of 2016, where Dr.P.Balakrishnan, a candidate who appeared in the selection process for appointment to the very same post and seeks a direction to make appointment based on the rank list, the learned Standing Counsel for the Council filed a statement dated 14.11.2016 stating that variation was found in the notification by KFRI in the matter of qualification prescribed for various posts. It was stated that 2nd respondent which is the apex body of KFRI felt it appropriate to withdraw the notification and to renotify the posts after cancelling the notification issued on 11.09.2015.

48. In this case respondents 2 to 5-including the Council and KFRI filed a counter affidavit stating that 17.85% i.e 5 out of the 28 Scientists-B working in the KFRI belong to Ezhava/Thiyya community; there is one from Muslim community; representation of other communities is poor; W.P(C).Nos.6148 of 2016 and c/cases advertisement was issued to rectify the imbalance of different communities without any bad intention. Regarding addition of first class for M.Sc it was stated that the same was to safeguard the international standard of the institution. In paragraph 7 of the counter affidavit it was stated that it is the prerogative of the KFRI to issue notification inviting applications for the posts of Scientists under it though it is functioning under the umbrella of the Council.