JUDGMENT:

V.S. SIRPURKAR, J. -- Leave granted in Special Leave Petition (C) Nos.3536/2007, 6576/2007, 6581/2007 and 17219-17222 of 2007.

2. The present Judgment shall dispose of all the above mentioned Special Leave Petitions.

3. A large number of petitioners have filed the above sets of Special Leave Petitions challenging therein a common judgment of the Guwahati High Court disposing of as many as 54 Writ Appeals which were filed against the judgment and order passed by the learned Single Judge of that High Court disposing of as many as 222 Writ Petitions. All those 222 Writ Petitions were disposed of by the learned Single Judge by a common judgment. The writ petitions pertained to the selections in a selection process for the 5500 posts of Armed Constables which was initiated by advertisements dated 21.8.2004. This advertisement was based on the separately identified vacancies for each Armed Police Battalion having its permanent headquarters in a District. The recruitment was to be held in 25 different centres covering each District of State of Assam for the vacancies identified separately for that district. As many as 2 lakh candidates took part in the recruitment process which commenced on 3rd December, 2004 and lasted upto 11th December, 2004.

4. On completion of the recruitment drive, separate select-lists for each District for the Armed Police Battalion located in the District and the District Executive Force were prepared. These select-lists were challenged in the above mentioned 222 writ petitions by nearly 3000 unsuccessful aspirants. Later on more than 1000 selected candidates also got themselves impleaded in the writ petitions. Initially the court sought for the records of the selection process and ordered the same to be kept in safe custody of the Registry of the court. This was done since the apprehensions were expressed by the Writ Petitioners that there may be tampering of records. A scrutiny of these records was got done by the learned Single Judge through three Judicial Officers who were appointed for that purpose. A sample survey of the records of the selected/unsuccessful candidates was done by the three Judicial officers. While going through the records, the learned Single Judge considered the same District-wise and ultimately upheld the selections in respect of 10 Districts while the selections as well as the selection process in the other Districts were set aside and quashed. This gave rise to the Writ Appeals both by the State as also by the selected candidates. The appeals, therefore, came to be filed in respect of the following Districts and Battalions:

1) Dhubri

2) Karimganj

3) Hailakandi

4) Cachar

5) Sibsagar

6) Jorhat

7) Nagaon

8) Darang

9) Sonitpur

10) Goalpara

11) Morigaon

12) Barpeta

13) 4th APBN, GRP, CID, SB & ACB

14) Commando BN & Kamrup DEF

15) 10th APBN

The Division Bench allowed the appeals pertaining to (i) Karimganj District, (ii) Hailakandi District, (iii) Commando Battalion & Kamrup DEF; and (iv) 10th AP Battalion. The appeals pertaining to the rest of the Districts/Battalions were dismissed. As such the selections made in those Districts/Battalions were also set aside as was done by the learned Single Judge. In the present Civil Appeals before us we are concerned with the selections of only three Districts, they are: (i) Dhubri, (ii) Barpeta; and (iii) Sonitpur. Civil Appeal arising out of SLP (C) No.3536/2007 pertains to Dhubri District, Civil Appeal arising out of SLP (C) Nos.6581 and SLP (C) Nos.17219-17222 of 2007 pertain to Barpeta District while Civil Appeal arising out of SLP (C) 6576 of 2007 pertains to Sonitpur District. We will, therefore, be limiting ourselves only in so far as those Districts are concerned.

5. As has been stated earlier, there were advertisements dated