JUDGMENT:

K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, CJI.

1. Leave granted.

2. The Appeals arising out Special Leave Petition (C) Nos. 24667-24668 of 2005 are filed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the other Appeals are filed by the officers who were aggrieved by the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petitions Nos. 10604/2004 and 10965/2005. The writ petitioners in W.P. No. 10604/2004 filed OA No. 6246 of 1998 before the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad (for short "the Tribunal") contending that they should be declared as seniors to the Deputy Collectors who were appointed on 9.12.1993, though they were appointed as Deputy Collectors on 9.12.1994.

3. The facts, in short, are as follows.

3.1. The appointment to the post of Deputy Collectors is governed by the Andhra Pradesh Civil Service (Executive Branch) Rules, 1992, framed under proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India. As per these Rules, 1/3rd of substantive vacancies in the category of Deputy Collectors have to be filled up by direct recruitment and 2/3rd of the vacancies by promotion from the feeder cadre of Tehsildars. Rule 22 of the Andhra Pradesh State and Subordinate Service Rules (hereinafter referred to as "the Rules") provides for reservation in favour of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and other categories. Rule 22 (ii) (e) of the Rules enables the Government that if in any recruitment qualified candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes are not available, limited recruitment confined to such candidates could be resorted to. As 2/3rd of the vacancies of Deputy Collectors have to be filled up by promotions, there was dearth of candidates in the category of the Scheduled Tribes for being promoted to the post of Deputy Collectors. In 1991 the posts of Deputy Collector to be filled up by promotion from the Scheduled Tribes candidates accumulated to 12 and then on 15.11.1990, the Head of Department sent a proposal to government to consider filling up of 12 Scheduled Tribe candidates by direct recruitment to fill up the 12 carry forward vacancies. The Government accepted the proposal and issued GO Ms. No. 264 dated 01.04.1991 and set apart 12 posts of Deputy Collectors to be filled up by the Scheduled Tribes candidates by "limited recruitment". Steps were taken to recruit the eligible candidates through the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (for short "the Commission").

4. Meanwhile, as part of the general recruitment, the Commission had issued advertisement on 1.8.1990 inviting applications with a view to undertake recruitment to different categories of posts in Group 1 and 2(a) of the Andhra Pradesh State Service, including the category of Deputy Collector. This selection consisted of both general recruitment and limited recruitment. The process of selection consisted of preliminary examination and final examination. A preliminary examination was held on 27.1.1991, but on 5.2.1991 the Government of Andhra Pradesh revised the maximum age limit of the candidates. In view of this relaxation of age granted to the candidates, fresh applications were called for and for additional applicants a preliminary examination was held on 14.4.1991. The Commission prescribed 88 marks as cut-off marks and the main examination was held on 9.11.1991. Some Original Applications were filed before the State Administrative Tribunal challenging the selection process. The Tribunal gave certain directions. These OAs were disposed of by the Tribunal on 4.6.1992 with the following directions :-

(a) "The selection for general recruitment pursuant to the advertisement No. 8/90 as well as the supplemental advertisement shall be confined to the vacancies meant for direct recruitment for the various services which were available on 01.05.1990 as contemplated by G.O. Ms.No. 103 GAD dt. 03.02.67. For this purpose the State Government should immediately arrive at the correct figure of vacancies for each service (together with reservati