(1.) The applicants in O.A.(EKM) No.1913 of 2020 and O.A.(EKM) No.388 of 2021 before the Kerala Administrative Tribunal are the petitioners before us in these Original Petitions impugning the common order dtd. 18/5/2022 of the Tribunal in the O.A.'s aforementioned. The brief facts necessary for disposal of these Original Petitions are as follows:
(2.) The said argument did not find favour with the Tribunal, which proceeded to dismiss the O.A.'s on the reasoning detailed in paragraphs 27 to 30 of the order of the Tribunal, which is extracted herein below:
(3.) Before us, it is the submission of Sri.P.Nandakumar, the learned counsel for the petitioners in these O.P's that in view of Ext.P14 judgment of a Division Bench of this Court, the Special Leave Petition [SLP] against which was dismissed, the PSC was obliged to extend the validity of the rank lists till 4/8/2021, as was contended by the petitioners before the Tribunal. It is pointed out that after the dismissal of the SLP preferred by the State against Ext.P14 judgment, a Review Petition was filed before this Court, where, another Division Bench that considered the matter, directed four additional NJD vacancies also to be advised. The learned counsel for the petitioners also places reliance on the judgment dtd. 8/4/2016 of another Division Bench in O.P.(KAT).No.1 of 2015 that followed the ratio in Ext.P14 judgment relied on by him. It is further pointed out that the Tribunal itself had followed Ext.P14 judgment while disposing a similar O.A. [Ext.P15], and in pursuance of the Tribunal's order, the applicant in the said O.A. had been advised to the post by the PSC. The argument of the learned counsel, briefly, is that inasmuch as the PSC had advised persons to vacancies that had arisen prior to the cancellation of the list on 4/9/2020, and the last batch of the said advised candidates had commenced their training on 1/2/2021, the provisions of the 1st proviso to Rule 13 mandated that the validity of the rank list be extended further taking note of the commencement of training of the said candidates.