IMPORTANT POINT
When liberty is given for filing review for limited purpose; on rejection of the review filing fresh SLP against original High Court order is not permissible.
If tainted and non-tainted candidates could be segregated, individual show cause notice ought to issue before cancelling the selection. If on the other hand segregation is not possible then individual notice is not possible and entire selection may be cancelled.

JUDGMENT

A.M. Khanwilkar, J.

1. Delay condoned. Leave granted.

2. These appeals take exception to the judgment and order dated 28th November, 2017 in Writ-A No.37143/2017 and 25th July, 2018 in Review Application No.2/2018 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. The said writ petition was filed by the respondent Nos.1 to 11 herein to challenge the order dated 11th August, 2017 passed by the Chief Engineer/Adhisthan2-1, U.P. Jal Nigam (for short “Nigam”). The said decision of the Chief Engineer was preceded by a decision of the Board of Directors of Nigam taken in its 166th meeting held on 26th July, 2017. It was found that the appointments made to 113 posts of Assistant Engineer (Civil), 5 posts of Assistant Engineer (Electrical/Mechanical) and 4 posts of Assistant Engineer (Computer Science/Electronics and Communication/Electrical and Electronics) pursuant to notification dated 19th November, 2016, were void ab initio.

3. The High Court vide impugned common judgment and order dated 28th November, 2017 allowed the said writ petition and connected matters, essentially, being of the view that the order passed by the Chief Engineer dated 11th August, 2017, was in breach of principles of natural justice. The High Court also opined that the said order of the Chief Engineer declaring the appointments of 122 candidates as void ab initio, had failed to record the foundational fact that it was not possible to distinguish tainted and untainted case(s) and that there was possibility of all of them getting the benefit of the irregularities committed in the selection process; and yet hastened to terminate the appointments of all the 122 candidates by one order, that too, without giving notice and opportunity of hearing to the concerned appointees. As regards the irregularities committed in the subject selection process as noted in the order dated 11th August, 2017, the High Court held that individual notice to the concerned appointee was indispensable.

4. Being aggrieved, the appellants filed Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos.5410-5419 of 2018 before this Court. The same was disposed of vide order dated 16th March, 2018, in the following terms:

“ ORDER

Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners, points out that the petitioners having found out that there were defective questions and incorrect answer keys, the High Court should have permitted the petitioners to re-work the merit list. He submitted that the High Court has gone wrong in insisting for an individual notice in the factual matrix of this case. In this regard he has also placed reliance on a judgment of this Court in Vikas Pratap Singh and Others v. State of Chhattisgarh and Others, reported in (2013) 14 SCC 494.

Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, learned senior counsel appearing for the respondent(s), however, points out that whether the questions were defective or key answers were incorrect are disputed questions and, therefore, liberty should be granted to the respondents to participate in the inquiry. He further submits that the decision of this Court referred to by the learned senior counsel for the petitioners may not apply to the facts of this case.

Be that as it may, having gone through the impugned judgment, we do not find that the door is yet closed. It is for the petitioners, if they are so advised, to approach the High Court itself for a liberty to re-work the answer sheets on the basis of the corrections, in case the High Court is also of the view that the corrections need to be made.

The special leave petitions are, accordingly, disposed of. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.”

(emphasis supplied)

5. Pursuant to the liberty granted to the appellants, a review application came to be filed before the High Court being Civil Misc. Review Application No.2 of 2018. The appellants raised the following grounds in the said review application:

“GROUNDS

(I) Because this Hon’ble Court while deciding the matter has not considered the