“ 7. Article 320 does not come under Chapter I headed “Services” of Part XIV. It occurs in Chapter II of that part headed “Public Service Commissions”. Articles 320 and 323 lay down the several duties of a Public Service Commission. Article 321 envisages such “additional functions” as may be provided for by Parliament or a State Legislature. Articles 320 and 323 begin with the words “It shall be the duty….”, and then proceed to prescribe the various duties and functions of the Union or a State Public Service Commission, such as to conduct examinations for appointments; to assist in framing and operating schemes of joint recruitment; and of being consulted on all matters relating to methods of recruitment or principles in making appointments to Civil Services and on all disciplinary matters affecting a civil servant. Perhaps, because of the use of the word “shall” in several parts of Article 320, the High Court was led to assume that the provisions of Article 320(3)(c) were mandatory, but in our opinion, there are several cogent reasons for holding to the contrary. In the first place, the proviso to Article 320, itself, contemplates that the President or the Governor, as the case may be, “may make regulations specifying the matters in which either generally, or in any particular class of case or in particular circumstances, it shall not be necessary for a Public Service Commission to be consulted”. The words quoted above give a clear indication of the intention of the Constitution makers that they did envisage certain cases or classes of cases in which the Commission need not be consulted. If the provisions of Article 320 were of a mandatory character, the Constitution would not have left it to the discretion of the Head of the Executive Government to undo those provisions by making regulations to the contrary. If it had been intended by the makers of the Constitution that consultation with the Commission should be mandatory, the proviso would not have been there, or, at any rate, in the
