S.S. Sandhawalia, J. - (1.) WHETHER the power of appointment of inspectors expressly vested by Rule 6 of the Punjab Excise Subordinate Services Rules, 1943 in the Commissioner of Excise and Taxation, can be overridden by a mere executive instruction constituting an Internal Committee for the recruitment to the aforesaid posts? - -is the solitary question that falls for consideration in this appeal under Clause -X of the Letters Patent.
(2.) LEARNED Counsel for the parties are agreed that though a number of other issues also arose in the writ petition before the learned Single Judge, the above question is the only surviving one now in this appeal. Therefore, it suffices to notice the facts directly relevant thereto. It is not necessary to delineate the chequered history of the earlier dispute which had impelled the writ Petitioners to challenge their reversion by way of Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 3096, 3137 and 3138 of 1971. It suffices to mention that in Civil Writ Petition No. 4062 of 1971 giving rise to the present appeal, the 15 Petitioners, who were Excise and Taxation Inspectors posted at Patiala had inter alia challenged the appointment of Respondents Nos. 3 and 5 to 14 as Inspectors under the purported orders of the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab. This challenge was based on a three -fold ground, namely: (i) that neither any test had been held nor any person had been interviewed for appointment to the posts; (ii) that the impugned orders smack of favouritism and arbitrariness; and (iii) that the Excise and Taxation Commissioner was the appointing authority and he did not himself assess or consider the merits of the candidates while passing the impugned order and he merely acted on the recommendations made by an Internal Committee - -the constitution of which was illegal and without jurisdiction.
(3.) THE learned Single Judge unhesitatingly rejected the grounds (i) and (ii) but ground No. (iii) found favour with him and on this limited point he quashed annexure A/2 appointing Respondents Nos. 3 and 5 to 14 to the posts of Excise Inspectors.;