JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J.—Leave granted.

2. Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (for short, the Commission) is in appeal before us aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order of a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature of Andhra Pradesh dismissing a writ petition filed by it from an order of the Andhra Pradesh State Administrative Tribunal dated 15.10.2004 directing it to make recruitment from the selection list to the nine posts of Deputy Superintendent of Police as only ten out of nineteen posts advertised therefor had been filled up.

7. The Commission advertised nineteen posts for recruitment to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police. Pursuant thereto and in furtherance thereof, applications were filed, inter alia, by the Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 herein. The State, however, asked the Commission to fill up only ten posts. An exercise was carried out accordingly by the Commission purported to be in terms of Rule 6 of the Public Service Commission Rules.

4. Aggrieved by and dissatisfied therewith, the Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 filed an Original Application before the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal). The Tribunal noticed that the Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 pursuant to the advertisement of the Commission appeared at the written examination. They had also appeared at the interview. At that stage only, the State of Andhra Pradesh directed the Commission to fill up only ten posts, which was complied with.

5. It is not disputed that nineteen posts were vacant. The vacancies were notified in terms of Rule 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Police Service Rules. It is also not denied or disputed that the said posts were to be filled up both by way of direct recruitment as also by promotion in the ratio of 1:2. In not filling up the said posts, according to the Respondents, the provisions of the said Rules have been violated.

6. In its counter affidavit, the State contended :

"According to the programme of selections to be made by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission among other things being equal that Government in the case of State Services should send to Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission estimates of the number of candidates to be selected for each service. The estimate of the number of candidates required should cover a period of 12 months following the dates on which the lists of selected candidates are due to be communicated to the appointing authorities according to the programme. As the appointing authorities are not adhering to the time schedule and not notifying the vacancies to the A.P. Public Service Commission in time, which results in delay in making recruitment in the State Government Offices the following instructions were issued :

"The matter has been reviewed and it is hereby ordered that 1/3 of the vacancies in respect of retirements in the particular year of recruitment in respect of the posts which are within the purview of the A.P. Public Service Commission for making direct recruitment shall be notified in advance to the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission in order to hasten up the recruitment and to enable the Commission to programme its selection suitably."

In Rc.No. 564/G3/97, dt. 8.7.97, the Director General and Inspector General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad has addressed the General Administration (Ser) Department with a request to notify 19 backlog vacancies of Deputy Superintendent of Police Category-2 for direct recruitment but not the vacancies that would arise in future and he has also extended the same letter to the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission which in turn notified the vacancies for the purpose of inviting applications from the open market.

However on the presumption that they were to be filled up for future recruitment, Government in Home Department have given directions to the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission that only 10 vacancies for the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police instead of 19 vacancies be notified as per Govt