MERIT SYSTEM. 2171

shall be represented in such suits and in all legal matters by the Attorney-
General of the State. Any citizen of the State may maintain an action in
any court of record or before any justice of the peace to recover, for the
use of the State, any sums paid contrary to the provisions of this Article
or of the rules of the Commissioner from the person or persons authorizing
or making such payment to enjoin such person or persons from making
such authorization, or to enjoin the Commissioner from attaching his
certificate to a payroll, if a certificate is provided for by rule, in viola-
tion of the provisions of this Article. No judgment, decree or other order
of any court or of any justice of the peace entered upon the recovery of any
such sums for the State shall be entered " satisfied " or " released " except
upon the written order of the Attorney-General.

1920, ch. 41, sec. 27.

27. This Article may be cited as the Merit System Law; its purpose
is to provide candidates for appointment to positions in the classified ser-
vice after determining by practical tests of the fitness of such candidates
for the positions which they seek, without regard to the political or reli-
gious opinions or affiliations of such candidates, or of any other standard
except the business efficiency of the classified service, and to provide ade-
quate means for the prompt removal from positions in the classified ser-
vice of all persons therein who may be indolent, incompetent, inefficient,
or otherwise unfit to remain therein, and to keep in a workable state the
provisions for the promotion of employees as provided in this Article to
the end that the same shall be so administered as to attract the best class
of candidates to the classified service.

1920, ch. 41, sec. 2.

28. If any clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Article shall,
for any reason, be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be
unconstitutional and invalid, such judgment shall not effect, impair or
invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to
the clause, sentence, paragraph or section thereof so found unconstitutional
and invalid.

1920, ch. 41, sec. 3.

29. All laws and parts of laws, in so far as they are inconsistent with
this Article, or any of the provisions thereof, are hereby repealed, and
especially any provision of law which may conflict with the provisions of
this Article for the classification, selection and appointment of employees,
including Chapter 224 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1918.