JUDGMENT :

AJAY RASTOGI, J.

1. These present batch of appeals have been instituted by the unsuccessful appellants being aggrieved with the impugned judgment dated 20th March, 2013 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in LPA No. 02/2011 and LPA No. 04/2011 and placing reliance on its judgment dated 12th March, 2013, cognate LPAs at a later stage were disposed of.

2. The case has a chequered history and in order to appreciate the grievance of the appellants, it will be necessary to glance through the relevant background facts. It is the third round of litigation arising out of the selection process held pursuant to an advertisement (No. Pers/Rectt/SI/EX-99/A-405) dated 25th February, 1999 issued by the 2nd respondent-Director General of Police, J&K State inviting applications for the post of Sub-Inspector of Police (Executive), the post which is included in the Schedule appended to the J&K Police (Executive) Rules to be filled by open selection in terms of the procedure prescribed under the Rules.

3. Admittedly, it is neither provided in the scheme of Rules nor mentioned in the advertisement notice that the merit list of the candidates based on the written