ORDER

1. The appellants herein feeling aggrieved by the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dated 4-2-1993 have preferred these appeals by special leave. The brief facts which need to be noticed for the disposal of these appeals are as under:

2. On receipt of a requisition from the Director of Land Records for filling vacancies in the post of Patwaris, an advertisement was issued on 7-5-1987, inviting applications from eligible candidates for the existing 485 vacancies. Pursuant to this advertisement, over a lakh of candidates applied for the post of Patwari. It appears that thereafter the Subordinate Service Selection Board (hereinafter called the Board) was dissolved on 22-6-1987, and was reconstituted on 25-6-1987. Thereupon, a fresh advertisement was issued for filling in the said 485 vacancies on 22-7-1987. On the requisition of the Director, the total number of vacancies were enlarged to 1000 or thereabout. As a very large number of candidates had applied, the Board constituted various committees for interviewing the candidates at different stations. On receipt of the recommendations from these committees, the Board selected 2318 candidate