U987) 1984February4 [TRIANTAFYLUDES, P.) INTHEMATTEROFARTICLE146OFTHECONSTITUTION ANTONIOSKOUFETTAS, Applicant, v. THEREPUBLICOFCYPRUS,THROUGH THEPUBLICSERVICECOMMISSION, Respondent (Cases Nos. 80/77, 81/77). PublicOfficers—Promotions—Qualifications—Scheme ofservice—Verygood knowledge of Greek and English — Long and satisfactoryservice with Government and the candidates educationalqualifications rendered inthis casethedecisionthatsuchcandidatepossessedsuchqualificationreasonably open totheCommission. Public Officers— Secondments — Qualifications — Possession of — Judicial control—Principlesapplicable.. By means of recourse 81/77 the applicant challenges the validity of the promotion of interested partyMarinosto thepost of Senior Surveyor inthe Department of LandsandSurveysonthe following grounds,namelythathe 1 0 was, wrongly, not treated as a candidate, that he was better qualified than Mannos and that the Commission wrongly found that Marinos had the required undertheschemeofservicequalification ofaverygood knowledge of English and Greek, and by means of recourse 80/77 he challenges the secondment, madeonthesamedayastheaforesaid promotion,ofinterested 1 5 partyPantazistothepostofSeniorSurveyorinthesaidDepartment, onthe ground mat as Pantazis had joined the surveying department in 1973, he could not have been treated as possessing the qualification of «long experience» requiredbythescheme ofservice. Held, dismissingrecourse81/77:
(1)Itisnotcorrectthatthe applicantwas 2 0 notconsidered for promotion.
(2)Thequalifications oftheapplicantweremoreorlessequalorequivalent tothoseoftheinterestedparty,buteven ifitisassumedmattheywerebetter, the scaleswould not havebeen tided infavourofapplicant, because such a 1064 5 3C.L.H. Koufettas v. Republic factor should be weighed against all otherrelevant factors Inthe light ofthe matenal before theCourt,thesub judice promotionwas reasonably opento theCommission 5 10
(3)Beanng ir\mindthelong andsatisfactory service of theinterestedparty with the Government as well as his educational qualifications it was reasonably opentotheCommissiontofindthathepossessed the qualification of very good knowledge of Greekand English Held, further, dismissingrecourse80/77 Thematterwhether acandidate possesses therequired qualifications is a matterfor'the Commission andthis Courtcannotinterfere if itsdecision was inthisrespect,as indeed inthelight of the matenal before the Courtit was in this case, reasonably open tothe Commission Recoursesdismissed No orderas to costs 15 Casesreferredto Koufettasν TheRepublic [1978)3 C LR 225, Koufettasν TheRepublic
(1980)3 C L R 226, Koufettasν TheRepublic
(1983)3 C LR 1252, Kolokotroms v. TheRepublic
(1980)3 CL.R 418, 20 Miliatosv TheRepublic
(1981)3 C L R 85, Constannnou ν TheRepublic
(1983)3 C L R 136, Stylianouv ThePublicService Commission
(1980)3 C L R 11, Michael(No l)v TheRepublic
(1975)3 C L R 136, Michael(No 2)ν TheRepublic
(1975)3 C L R 432 25 Recourses. Recourses against the decision of the respondent topromote the interested parties to the post of Senior Surveyor in the Departmentof LandsandSurveys inpreference andinsteadofthe applicant. 30 E.Efstathiou withC. Loizou, for theapplicant. R. Gavrielides, Senior Counsel of the Republic, for the respondent. 1065 Koufettasτ.Republic
(1987)Τ. Papadopoulos, for theinterested parties. Cur.adv. vult. TRIANTAFYLLIDESP.readthefollowingjudgment.Bymeans ofthepresentrecourses,whichinviewoftheirnaturewereheard, and are being determined,together, theapplicant challenges (in 5 case 80/77) the decision of the respondent Public Service Commission to promote Th. Marinos, and {in case 81/77) its decision tosecond A. Pantazis,tothepost of Senior Surveyor in theDepartmentof LandsandSurveysasfromthe15thNovember 1976, instead of theapplicant. 10 Thesalient facts of thesecasesarethefollowing: Onthe6thSeptember 1976 theDirectorof theDepartmentof LandsandSurveys forwarded tothe PublicService Commission a list showing his rating of the suitability of each candidate for promotion, including the applicant and the said Marinos and 15 Pantazis. At its meeting on the 10th September 1976 the respondent Commissionfilled avacancy inapermanentpostofLands Officer (Surveying Branch) by promoting to it Senior Surveyor K. Panayiotouas from the 15thNovember 1976. 20 As a result of such promotion a consequential vacancy was created ina permanentpostof SeniorSurveyor andatthesame meeting, on the 10th September 1976, the Commission proceeded to fill it by promoting thereto, as from the 15th November 1976, Th.Marinos(who isan«interested party»inthe 25 present proceedings). At thattime interested party Marinos was servingonsecondmenttothetemporarypostofSenior Surveyor. Because of the promotion of interested party Marinos a consequential vacancy was created inatemporary postofSenior Surveyor andtheCommission,again atthesamemeeting,onthe 30 10thSeptember 1976,secondedtoit,asfromthe15thNovember 1976, A. Pantazis (whois,also,an interested party inthepresent proceedings). As a result the present recourses 80/77 and81/77 were filed. Recourse 81/77 was presented initially as attacking the 35 secondment of «Panayiotou», but counsel for the applicant applied, and was allowed, to substitute in the place of «Panayiotou» interested party Pantazis as the Court was duly 1066 3 C.L.R. Koufettasv.Republic TrlantafyfUdes P. satisfied thatthenameof«Panayiotou»hadbeen referred tointhe motion for relief due to an oversight (see Koufettas v. The Republic, (1978^3C.L.R. 225). Before proceeding with the examination of the merits of the 5 present cases I must refer, for the purpose of completing the overall picture, to certain developments which occurred after judgment had been reserved in these two cases and which, obviously, cannotaffect their outcome. In 1978 there was abolished the temporary post of Senior 10 Surveyor to which interested party Pantazis had been seconded and onthe6th May1978the respondent Commission decided to promote him to a corresponding permanent post of Senior Surveyor but as a result of a new recourse of the applicant in the present case such promotion was annulled as having been 15 effected contrary to law (see Koufettas v. The Republic,
(1980)3 C.L.R. 226). Itappearsthat,subsequently,theCommissionreconsidered the matter and promoted Pantazis once again tothepermanent post of Senior Surveyor, with retrospective effect as from the 1st 20 January 1978. Such promotion was also challenged by the applicant in the present case and itwas annulled for the reasons stated in a judgment delivered on the 21st December 1983 (see Koufettas v. The Republic, case499/80, notyetreported)*. Irevert nowtothe issuesarising inthepresent cases and Ishall 25 commence with case 80/77 in which there is challenged the promotion of interested party Marinos to the post of Senior Surveyor: Counsel for the applicant had submitted that ashisclientisnot expressly mentioned in the relevant minutes of the respondent 30 Commission he was, wrongly, not treated as a candidate for promotion, even though he was holding the immediately lower post ofSurveyor, 1stGrade,and wasqualified for promotion; but Ifindno merit in this submission because there emerges clearly from the relevant minutes of the respondent Commission thatin 35 filling thevacancyinthepostofSeniorSurveyorthe Commission had considered ascandidates allthe officers servinginthepostof Surveyor, 1stGrade,one of whichwasheld bythe applicant. • Reportedin
(1983)3C.L.R. 1252. 1067 Triantafyffides P. Koufettas v.RepubUc
(1987)Ithasbeen, also,submitted bycounsel fortheapplicantthathis client was better qualified than interested party Marinos. After, however, perusingtherelevantmaterialbefore meIhavecometo theconclusion that thequalifications of theapplicantandthoseof the interested party were more or lessequal. Buteven assuming 5 that the qualifications of the applicant were superior to those of thisinterested party thisfactor byitself could not,and should not, havetiltedthescalesinfavour oftheappliant(see,interalia,inthis respect, Kohkotronis v. TheRepublic,(l9S0) 3 C.L.R.418, 428) astheCommission had toweighsuchfactortogetherwithallother 10 relevant considerations inordertoreach itssubjudicedecision as towhowasthemostsuitableforpromotion candidate;and Iamof theopinion that inthepresent instance itwasreasonably open to ittoselectthe interested partyasbeing on thewhole the best. 15 Ithasbeen, moreover, contended bycounsel forthe applicant, that the Commission wrongly found that thisinterested party had a very good knowledge of Greekand English asrequired by the scheme of service. I am of the view that itwasreasonably open to the respondent 20 Commission, bearing in mind the long and satisfactory servicein Government of this interested party, coupled with his educational qualifications, to come to the conclusion that this interestedpartypossessed therequired undertherelevantscheme of service very good knowledge of Greek and English (see, inter 25 alia, inthisrespect, Miliatosv. The Republic,
(1981)3 C.L.R.85, 90,and Kohkotronis, supra,427). For all the foregoing reasons the recourse of the applicant againstthepromotion ofinterested partyMarinosfailsandithasto be dismissed accordingly. I come now to recourse 81/77 against the secondment of interested party Pantazistoa temporary postofSenior Surveyor: Ithasbeen argued onbehalf oftheapplicantthathewassenior tointerestedpartyPantazisinthepostofSurveyor, 1stGrade;and, also, that, as under the scheme of service long experience is 35 required insurveying mattersand thisinterested party had joined the Surveying section only in 1973, he could not have been treated as possessing such experience and as being qualified for promotion. 1068 30 3C.L.R. Koufettasv.Republic Triantafyllldea P. It has been repeatedly stated by this Court on previous occasions that the decision as to whether a certain candidate possesses the required underthe scheme ofservice qualifications isa matter comingwithintheambitofthe discretionary powersof 5 the Public Service Commission and that the Court will not interfere with itsdecision inthisrespect ifitwasreasonably open to the Commission to find that he was qualified (see, inter alia, Constantinou v. The Republic,
(1983)3 C.L.R. 136, 141, Stylianou v. ThePublicService Commission,
(1980)3 C.L.R.11, 10 17,18 and Michael(No. 1)v. The Republic,
(1975)3 C.L.R. 136, 141 and on appeal, Michael (No. 2) v. The Republic,
(1975)3 C.L.R. 432). Inthe present case itappears from the relevant minutes of the Commission that the factor of the experience of the candidates 15 was considered by the Commission, together with all other relevant matters,inarrivingatthe conclusion that interested party Pantaziswason the whole the best and I do not thinkthatthereis any reason for holding that the experience of the said interested party was so short as to render him not qualified for promotion 20 under the relevantscheme ofservice. It is also, to be clearly derived from the minutes of the Commission that all the facts appertaining to each one of the candidates servinginthepost of Surveyor, 1stGrade, were taken into consideration and proper weight was given to the merits, 25 qualifications, seniority, service and experience of these candidates, as well as to the views and recommendations of the Head of Department who had recommended for promotion this interested party. inthelightoftheforegoing Iam oftheopinionthatitwas,inthe 30 circumstances,reasonably opentotherespondentCommissionto prefer thisinterestedpartytotheapplicant, inspiteoftheseniority ofthe latter. Forallthe above reasons Iam ofthe opinion that recourse8 1 / 77fails,too,and hastobedismissed accordingly. 35 I shall not, however, make any order as costs of these two recourses. Recourses dismissed. No orderasto costs. 1069