Judgment :-

Chelameswar, J.

1. Leave granted in SLP (Civil) No.12448 of 2009.

2. Since both the appeals raise a common question of law, the same are being disposed of by this common judgment. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the facts in Civil Appeal No.1059 of 2005.

3. This appeal arises out of a judgment in CW P No. 13915 of 2002 of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana dated 23rd January, 2003. 20 unsuccessful petitioners in the above writ-petition are the appellants herein. The High Court dismissed the writ petition following an earlier judgment of a Division Bench in LPA 209 of 1992 dated 6th September, 1993, which in turn arose out of Civil Writ Petition No. 5280 of 1988. The facts leading to all these writ petitions as could be culled out from the material on record are as follows:-

4. There was a large scale disturbance in the State of Punjab in 1980s. State was not in a position to handle the prevailing law and order situation with the available police personnel. Therefore, the State of Punjab resorted to recruitment under section 17[Section 17, Police Act, 1861 – When it shall appear that any unlawful assembly, or riot or disturbance of the peace has taken plac