Judgment :-

A.K. Sikri, J.

1. The appellants have filed the present petition under Article 136 of the Constitution of India for Special Leave to Appeal against the final judgment and order of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad dated 25.10.2010 allowing Writ Petition (C) No. 9437 of 2010 filed by the Respondent herein and quashing the recruitment of the appellants herein to the post of Junior Assistants in the Unit of District and Sessions Judge, Adilabad under category IV of the A.P. Judicial Ministerial Service Rules 2003 pursuant to the Notification dated 4.12.2009 bearing Reference No. Dis. 6184 of 2009.

2. Since the appellants were in service when their recruitment was quashed, along with Special Leave Petition the appellants had also filed I.A. praying for stay of the impugned judgment of the High Court. While issuing notice in the Special Leave Petition on 16.12.2010 this Court had granted interim stay as prayed for. As a consequence, the appellants continue in the employment.

3. Though the notices have been duly served upon the respondent, the respondent has not put in his appearance. Accordingly, we had no option but to proceed with the matter. The Counsel for the appellant was heard at length.

4. Leave granted.

5. The matter relates to the appointment to the post of Junior Assistants in the office of District and Sessions Judge, Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh. The Principal District and Sessions Judge had issued Notification dated 4.12.2009 inviting applications for 17 posts of Junior Assistants. This was in compliance with the directions given by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. All the appellants herein also applied for the said post. The respondent herein as well as her sister V. Buelah were also the applicants. The educational qualification prescribed for the post included passing of intermediate examination conducted by the A.P. State Board of intermediate examination or any equivalent examination. The appellants as well as the respondent and her sister fulfilled these qualifications. However, since the authorities had received large number of applications, the District Judge decided to raise the bench mark for short listing the candidates and only those candidates having degree qualification were sent letters for participating in the selection process. The Respondent and her sister got excluded in this short listing process.

6. Challenging their exclusion both the respondent and her sister filed the Writ Petition No. 8923 of 2010 in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. Notice was issued. However when the petition was taken up on 20.10.2010 the Court found that the examination for the said post had already been conducted on 18.4.2010. Thus, vide orders dated 20.4.2010 a Division Bench of the High Court dismissed the Writ Petition with liberty to the respondents to take appropriate action in accordance with law. Thereafter, the respondent filed Writ Petition No. 9437 of 2010 praying for issuance of a writ order or directions, more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, declaring action of the authorities in prescribing degree qualification as against the prescribed intermediate qualification shown in the Notification dated 4.12.2009 as illegal, arbitrary and violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Interim orders were passed in this Writ Petition to the effect that any appointment made to the post of Junior Assistants shall be subject to the result of the Writ Petition. This Writ Petition, after contest, has been allowed by the High Court vide impugned judgment dated 25.10.2010 holding that the selection procedure and recruitment process followed by the District Judge for recruitment to the 17 posts of Junior Assistants is unsustainable and the orders appointing the appellants to the said post has been quashed. This is how the appellants are before us questioning the validity of the said judgment.

7. We may record at this stage that for the 17 posts of Junior Assistants, 9,366 applications wer