Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. These original petitions are filed by Ex-servicemen who are competent for being considered for appointment as Lower Division Typist in various Departments, either in Malayalam or in English. The prescribed qualification is the acquisition of KGTE lower grade certificate. But, in terms of the provisions for former personnel of the defence forces, the following provision is made:

Service as Clerk/Writer in the defence forces for not less than 15 years will be deemed as sufficient qualification for the post. If selected they have to pass Malayalam Typewriting Lower before completing probation.

2. Among other things, weightage is given to Ex-servicemen in terms of different circulars of the Public Service Commission. They are found reflected in the manual maintained by the PSC for easy reference and relied on by the petitioner before the learned Tribunal. The provision for weightage in so far as it is relevant reads as follows:

The Ex-Servicemen shall be given weightage of marks in accordance with the following procedure:

1. Weightage of marks will be awarded only to those ex-servicemen who receive pensionary benefits from the Defence Forces. No mark shall be given for period of service less than 2 years.

Note.--(i) In order to prove that the candidate who has been relieved with pensionary benefits they shall produce pension payment orders or in lieu of the pension payment orders pension payment certificates if the fact of eligibility for pension is not clear from the discharge certificate.

(2) Ex-servicemen who are in actual receipt of pension and those ex-servicemen who have been issued with discharge certificate prior to the date of discharge and are eligible for pension from the date of actual discharge are also entitled to weightage marks.

(3) The Service in the Defence Forces which makes one qualified for the post in terms of qualifications fixed for the post will not be considered for the award of weightage marks. However, the excess of Defence Service over the prescribed length insisted on as qualification will be considered for the award of weightage marks.

2. The basis of award of marks as per the length of service shall be one mark for every two years of service subject to a maximum of ten marks provided that the weightage marks will be as follows in cases where the interview mark is 20/25/40.

Length of service

Weightage of marks

20 years and above

3 marks

10 years and above but below 20 years

2 marks

2 years and above but below 10 years

1 mark"

3. The plea of the petitioners is that even if 15 years of service is required to operate the deeming provision as to qualification of equivalence to KGTE lower, those 15 years should also be counted for the purpose of weightage available to Ex-servicemen. Before the Kerala Administrative Tribunal, the Public Service Commission took the stand that 15 years has to be reckoned exclusively for granting the equivalence and if any service is left which can be reckoned as Ex-service, that would be reckoned for granting weightage in terms of the afore-noted provision. The Tribunal accepted this view and dismissed the plea of the petitioners.

4. In these original petitions filed by the petitioners invoking Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the Government had volunteered a counter-affidavit stating that the view of the PSC is misplaced. We, therefore, thought it appropriate to consider that aspect as well, more deeply.

5. As rightly noted by the learned Tribunal, the petitioners do not stand to impeach the issuance of the circulars by the PSC regulating the grant of weightage. Nor do we find any sustainable ground either on account of error of jurisdiction or illegality warranting judicial review in so far as those circulars are concerned. The short question would be as to whether one can enjoy double benefit on the basis of 15 years of service, both to earn the deemed qualification and also the weightage.

6. Needless to say, if one does not have KGTE lower, he goes out of the field of choice. The recruitment is from the open market by direct recruitment. The open market competition has culled out the process by which ex-servicemen who had served in the category of clerk/writer for 15 years will be deemed to have acquired the necessary qualification for competing to the category of Lower Division Typist. The experience of 15 years has to be bundled and placed to earn that equalization. If that were so, the PSC is abundantly justified in stating that it is only the left over ex-service, if any, that could be counted for the purpose of weightage. Otherwise, we can easily visualize that an Ex-serviceman will enjoy 15 years of service to be counted for two purposes, to wit, firstly, to acquire the otherwise absent qualification which is the minimum prescribed requirement in terms of educational qualifications and secondly to gain weightage and thereby earn a comparably better scoring in the competition. This will definitely hit against the other open market candidates on the face of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. There would necessarily be equal treatment of unequals. We say this because, the provision for providing an equalization in qualification by applying a deeming provision is to bring unequal to the equal zone by providing a support to the Ex-servicemen. But, having enjoyed that, if they were to further enjoy the same length of service to be reckoned for the purpose of granting weightage and thereby steal a march over the other competing candidates, that, surely, would be hostile discrimination of the other qualified open market candidates. This would be anathema of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

7. For the aforesaid reasons, we are unable to countenance the plea of the petitioners and that taken by the State before this Court contradicting the stand taken by the PSC. We do not find our way to disagree with the views of the learned Tribunal.

8. In the result, these original petitions are dismissed. No costs.