Hrishikesh Roy, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) This appeal arises out of the Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 23677 of 2019. The Assam Public Service Commission (for short "APSC") has approached this Court to challenge the judgment and order dated 8th August, 2019 in W.P. (C) No. 4600 of 2019 whereby the Gauhati High Court struck down a portion of Clause 12.2 of the Assam Public Service Commission (Conduct of Business) Procedure, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as "the 2019 Procedure"). The following portion of Clause 12.2, incorporated with effect from 1st April, 2019, under the 2019 Procedure, was struck down by the High Court. "................and any proceeding in relation to interviews, selections or competitive examination pending on the date of commencement of these Procedures may be continued and completed in accordance with the provisions of the Rules in force prior to such commencement."
(3.) The result of the above is that the norms of selection for an ongoing process gets changed mid-stream in course of recruitment, for the 65 vacancies of Assistant Engineer (Civil) under the Water Resources Department for which, the APSC had issued an advertisement on 21st December, 2018 ("Annexure P-I"). On the date of the advertisement, the previous norms i.e. the Assam Public Service Commission (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Rules, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as "the 2010 Rules"), were in operation. The 2010 Rules provided for assessment of academic merit, special knowledge, additional relevant qualification, relevant service experience etc. under Rule 29 and 30, in the following manner: - "29. The Commission may determine the qualifying standard by giving weightage on academic merit, subject knowledge, additional relevant qualification, service experience relevant to the post etc. for preparing the final order of select list. 30. In the viva-voce test marks shall be allocated as below: (i) 50% on academic/professional qualification/service experience relevant to the post/preferential qualification. (ii) 50% for subject knowledge and general bearing. Out of this, 20% shall be for subject knowledge and the remaining 30% for general bearing. There shall be five gradings for Adviser/Expert's marks viz., 'Excellent', 'Very Good', 'Good', 'Fair' and 'Average', the value of which shall be determined by the Commission.";