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After the second advertisement was issued, Dr. R. Srinivasa Murthy who was heading the ICMR Centre wrote to the Director, NIMHANS that NIMHANS had an agreement with ICMR to "absorb the faculty posts". It was suggested by Dr. Murthy that "in view of this it would be appropriate that the appointment order could be suitably modified" and that "the same could apply to the appointment of Mr. Mahendra Sharma, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and Dr. K. Sekar(sic), Lecturer in Psychiatric Social Work". The suggestion of Dr. Murthy was accepted by NIMHANS and an order dated 21st April 1987 was issued by the Chief Administrative Officer (with a copy to Dr. Murthy) by way of a Corrigendum to the letter of appointment issued to the appellant. The first correction was as to the nature of his appointment. From a ' temporary tenure appointment', the appointment letter was corrected to read 'the post is permanent but the appointment is on officiating basis'. A further correction was introduced by the corrigendum which provided that 'on completion of the tenure appointment in the Centre, appointees will revert back to the service in the respective departments at NIMHANS. Further, the services rendered will count for seniority in the service of NIMHANS from the date of joining the post in the Centre". And so, by virtue of this corrigendum, the appellant's temporary appointment as a Lecturer with the Centre, became a permanent one with NIMHANS.

Statements of objections were filed by the appellant and the Chief Administrative Officer of NIMHANS. The respondent No. 3 chose not to file any reply. It was the case of the appellant and NIMHANS in their statements of objections, that the procedure followed in the appointment and subsequent absorption of the appellant in NIMHANS was perfectly regular. According to them there was no need to advertise the post of a lecturer in view of the following clause in the advertisement: "If the candidate is not found suitable to the post applied for the selection committee may recommend the candidate for a lower post in case of highly qualified candidate, the selection committee may recommend to a higher post other than the one advertised." It was further said that the respondent No. 1 had no locus standi to question the appellant's appointment in 1986 since she could not have been considered at all for the post of Lecturer since she had a 3rd class Masters degree. It was also stated that the selection process which had been started by the publication of the advertisement in 1989 had been abandoned because the Union Government was not interested in funding a de-addiction unit in NIMHANS. The learned Single Judge called for the records and after scrutinising them came to the conclusion that the appellant's appointment as Lecturer pursuant to the advertisement issued on 28th September 1986 was invalid because the post of Lecturer has not been advertised. He held that the clause which permitted the Selection Committee to appoint a 'suitable' candidate for a lower post, did not entitle the Selection Committee to either create a new post which had not been advertised or to at all consider a candidate who was not eligible to apply for the post advertised. According to the learned Single Judge, it was only when the candidate possessed the minimum qualifications for the post of Assistant Professor and he was not found suitable for whatever reason to hold the post, that the Selection Committee could consider him for being appointed to a lower post. The learned Single Judge held that at the interview for the post of Lecturer held pursuant to the second advertisement, the Selection Committee had found that the appellant was not suitable. The learned Judge found from the records that the appellant did not have any substantive appointment with NIMHANS and, therefore, the question of his reversion under the Corrigendum did not arise. The learned Judge concluded that the selection of the appellant was a 'fraud on the power of NIMHANS'; that NIMHANS had 'allowed itself to safeguard the interests of one individual', and that 'undue interest' had been taken in the appointment of the appellant. The appointment of the appellant having been set aside, the learned Judge directed the post of Assistant Professor, Psychiatric Social Work which then fell vacant, to be filled up in terms of the advertisement issued in 1989, and further that the experience acquired by the appellant by virtue of his illegal appointment was not to be taken into account. Both NIMHANS and the appellant preferred two separate appeals. The Division Bench upheld the finding of the learned Single Judge and dismissed the appeals.

Then again, the post which was advertised was a temporary tenure post and yet by virtue of the Corrigendum, the posts were made permanent. It is true that the advertisement stated there was a likelihood of some of the advertised posts being made permanent after three years. All that this meant was that the posts would remain temporary tenure posts for three years after which there was a possibility of the appointments being made permanent. When the post itself was made permanent from its very inception by the corrigendum issued several months later, the post should have been re-advertised so as to give fair notice to all prospective candidates regarding the nature of the vacancy to be filled. It was not open to NIMHANS to retrospectively and subsequent to the appointment change the nature of post advertised by issuing the Corrigendum.

In any case, the Corrigendum proceeded on a mis- interpretation of the terms and conditions under which the Centre was set up by the ICMR. There was no obligation on the part of the NIMHANS by reason of any 'agreement' with ICMR to absorb any employee of the Centre. ICMR's condition as quoted earlier merely obliged all Institutes where such centres were set up to continue the work after ICMR withdrew its financial support at the end of five years.

The corrigendum in so far as it provided for the 'reversion' of persons working at the Centre to NIMHANS certainly could not operate to revert back the appellant. The Cadre and Recruitment Rules of NIMHANS provide that appointments to the posts of Assistant Professor and Lecturer are to be made by direct recruitment. Besides, the appellant was in fact serving as Research Officer with the ICMR Centre when he was appointed as a Lecturer in 1986. There was a distinction between appointment as a Lecturer at the ICMR Centre and appointment to the post of a Lecturer in NIMHANS. That is why the appellant, even after having been issued the letter of appointment as Lecturer in the ICMR Centre, applied again pursuant to the second advertisement for appointment as Lecturer in NIMHANS. He could not, in the circumstances, be reverted back to NIMHANS.