TMI Blog2019 (5) TMI 1275X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... asonable and not arbitrary. Reference be made to Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission v. Navnit Kumar Potdar [ 1994 (9) TMI - SUPREME COURT] in which the Supreme Court upheld the action of Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission to call for interview only 71 applicants out of 188 applicants on the ground that only candidates with 7 years experience be called for interview whereas five years experience was the eligibility criteria. - W.P.(C) 5361/2019 & CM APPL.23607-23608/2019, and W.P.(C) 5365/2019 & CM APPL.23632-23633/2019 - - - Dated:- 17-5-2019 - MR. J.R. MIDHA J. Petitioner Through: Mr. Gaurav Bhardwaj, Mr. Abhishek Maratha, Ms. Nupur Sharma, Mr. Parveen Sehrawat, Advocates, Mr. Anupam Lal Das, Senior ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under the Union or a State, requiring special knowledge of law; (ii) In computing the period during which a person has been an advocate, there shall be included any period during which the person has held judicial office or the office of a member of a tribunal or any post, under the Union or a State, requiring special knowledge of law after he became an advocate. (Emphasis Supplied) 3. The Search-Cum-Selection Committee (SCSC) for recruitment of Members of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal invoked Rule 4A of Income-tax Appellate Tribunal Members (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1963 which empowers them to evolve its own procedure for selection of the Members. The Committee took note of the gu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... applied for the post were called for interview by the Selection Committee since the inception of the ITAT; the process of selecting only few applicants for the purposes of interview, while rejecting others without any intelligible differentia being applied in classification is discriminatory; no opinion of the Selection Board is put forth to the effect as to what makes the process of calling all the applicants as not practicable ; resorting to Rules framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India is a drastic step when the statute i.e. Income Tax Act, 1961 provides for well defined eligibility criteria for the candidates to be selection as Members of ITAT; the respondent authority cannot change the rule of the game midstream and dist ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to call all the candidates for interview, it shall short-list the candidates for this purpose by adopting such criteria which shall not be less than a person who has been practicing as an Advocate for at least twenty years and who has net taxable income of not less than ₹ 1,40,000/- (after allowable exemptions or deductions) for selection of judicial member, ITAT. It is further provided that Selection Board may adopt such criteria as it may deem fit, but which shall not be less than the eligibility criteria prescribed under Sub-sections (2) and 2(A) of Section 252 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961) and Rule 3 in case of candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes categories ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... id judgment is extracted and reproduced hereunder for ready reference: 9. Once the applications are received and the Selection Board or the Commission applies its mind to evolve any rational and reasonable basis, on which the list of applicants should be shortlisted, the process of selection commences. If with five years of experience an applicant is eligible, then no fault can be found with the Commission if the applicants having completed seven and half years of practice are only called for interview because such applicants having longer period of practice, shall be presumed to have better experience xxx xxx xxx 13 where the selection is to be made purely on the basis of interview, if the ap ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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