JUDGMENT :

DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, J.

1. Adjudicating on a vexed issue of service jurisprudence, a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature of Rajasthan allowed a batch of Special Appeals and reversed a judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 19 April 2018. The consequence of the judgment of the Division Bench dated 6 August 2018 is that the writ petition instituted by the appellants under Article 226 of the Constitution stands dismissed. This has given rise to the present batch of appeals. Since similar issues arise, all the appeals were heard together.

2. The appellants were appointed as Patwaris in the Revenue Department on 21 December 1993. On 17 June 2011, an advertisement was issued by the State of Rajasthan for holding a departmental examination to select candidates for 93 vacancies in the post of Land Records Inspector[“LRI”]. The vacancies related to the years 2008-09 and 2009-10. A fresh advertisement dated 28 January 2013 notified an increase in the number of vacancies to 155, including the vacancies for 2010-11. In response to a query made on 24 December 2014 under the Right to Information Act 2005, a year-wise bifurcation of the 155 vacancies was provided indic