JUDGMENT

K. M. Joseph, J. - Leave granted.

1. By Advertisement No. 14/16 published by the appellant, applications were invited for filling up of six posts of unreserved category and three posts in the reserved category under the Goa Civil Service Rules, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules'). Pursuant to the advertisement, 1866 candidates appeared in the Computer Based screening Test (CBRT) held on 05.03.2017. When the results were declared, only seven candidates including respondent Nos. 1 to 3 before this Court were found to have cleared the test. In terms of the advertisement and the Rules, the written test came to be conducted on 10.04.2017 and 11.04.2017. In the results which came to be declared, out of the seven, only four candidates were found qualified. Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 were among them. There is one Mr. Vivek Krishna Naik who, no doubt, stood first. On 16.05.2017, the appellant decided to fix the cut off marks with respect to the interview. The total marks fixed for the interview was 40. The appellant fixed cut off marks at 26. The final interview took place on 24.05.2017. Mr. Vivek Krishna Naik was declared successful. The results of respondent Nos. 1 to 3 were