Judgment :-

Aftab Alam, J.

1. I.A. No.1 of 2007 is allowed and Sanjib Das who was arrayed in SLP (C) No.12129/2006 as one of the respondents is permitted to be transposed as a petitioner. Consequently, the number of petitioners in that case becomes eight. Apart from the eight petitioners in SLP(C) No.12129/2006 there are two each in SLP(C) No. 12766 of 2006 and SLP (C) No.17979 of 2006 and two more in

I.A. No.5/2009 filed in SLP (C) No. 17979/2006.

2. Leave granted in all the SLPs.

3. The three appeals are directed against the judgment and order dated May 17, 2006 passed by a full bench of the Guwahati High Court disposing of a large group of writ petitions. The appellants, however, are aggrieved by the decision only in so far as it found and held that the selections made for filling up the vacancies in the posts of Lower Division Assistant (LDA) were bad and the select list, dated June 24, 2003 was illegal and consequently set it aside.

4. The controversy relates to appointments to the vacant posts of Lower Division Assistants in the Transport Department, Government of Assam for which the concerned authorities, following a selection process, prepared the select list dated June 24, 2003. The eight appellants in Civil Appeal arising from SLP(C) No.12129/2006 were among the 12 selected candidates in the select list that was set aside by the High Court. They are thus directly hit by the High Court judgment. The other six appellants in the other two Civil Appeals and I.A. No.5 of 2009 admittedly did not figure in the select list dated June 24, 2003. According to them, they were in some earlier list dated November 20, 2001 on the basis of which the select list of June 24, 2003 was finally drawn up. Their case is thus materially different from the case of the eight appellants in Civil Appeal arising from SLP(C) No.12129 /2006.

5. For filling up the vacancies in the posts of LDA in the Transport Department, Govt. of Assam, the selection process commenced in October, 1998. As is not uncommon these days, even before it was complete the selection process had to go through obstacles and face challenges in the Court. But having regard to the limited scope of these appeals it is not necessary to go into those details. Suffice it to note that on the basis of a written test held on November 14, 1999 and viva voce held on December 18, 2000 a select list was eventually prepared and in pursuance of the direction of the Guwahati High Court dated October 10, 2001 in W.P.(C) No. 4431 of 2001 it came to be finally published on June 24, 2003. It is not in dispute that the eight appellants in Civil Appeal arising from SLP(C) No.12129/ 2006 were among the 12 selected candidates in that list.

6. After the select list was published on June 24, 2003 appellants 1 & 2 (along with some others) filed W.P. (C) No.6139 of 2003 before the Guwahati High Court seeking direction for appointment on the basis of the select list. In that case the High Court passed an interim order on August 8, 2003 directing that any existing vacancies should be filled up from the select list and prohibiting any ad hoc appointments from outside that list. A similar order was passed by the High Court on March 5, 2004 in W.P. (C) No. 8815 of 2004 filed by one Inamul Hoque (who was at serial No.7 in that select list). Earlier to that a writ petition being W.P. (C) No.66222 of 2003 was filed, the petitioners in which challenged the select list dated June 24, 2003 published by the Joint Commissioner Transport, Government of Assam and sought direction for their appointment on the basis of some purported select list dated February 21, 2006. This writ petition too was one of the batch of cases disposed of by the full bench judgment against which the present appeals are preferred. The High Court found and held that there was no such select list as claimed by the petitioners of that case and that part of the judgment is not under appeal before us. In yet another proceeding, in Contempt Case No.