J. CHELAMESWAR, J.

( 1 ) THESE ten writ petitions raise questions, which are interconnected and arose out of various orders of the Andhra Pradesh administrative Tribunal in various O. As.

( 2 ) THE services under the State of Andhra pradesh are broadly classified into State services and Subordinate Services. The services of the employees falling under the category of State Service are being utilized in 19 Departments of the State. Such services are governed by certain common rules and also special rules in certain cases. The details of which may not be necessary for the present purpose except to state that in each of the service invariably a provision is made stipulating a minimum percentage of personnel that must be recruited by way of direct recruitment from the open market and others by way of either promotion or recruitment by transfer. The various posts falling under various State Services are once again classified as Group-l, Group-ll etc. In the instant case we are concerned with the recruitment to Group-l posts.

( 3 ) UNDER Article 315 of the Constitution, a service Commission for each State is created. Under Article 320, the Service Commission of the State is mandated to conduct examinations for the appointment to the services of the State as and when such a request is made by the State.

( 4 ) THE State of Andhra Pradesh made the last recruitment from the open market to group-l posts in the year 1998. Thereafter there was no recruitment for quite some time. In the year 2003, the State of Andhra Pradesh decided to make recruitment to Group-l services and requested the Service comission to undertake the process. The service Commission issued Notification no. 21/2003 dated 21-11-2003 inviting applications from eligible candidates in the prescribed form on or before 20-12-2003. The notification indicated that the recruitment process is meant for filling up 301 fresh vacancies and 7 backlog vacancies of S. Cs. and S. Ts. , in six categories of posts. They are: 1.

Deputy Collectors in A. P. Civil Service (Executive Branch)

2.

Commercial Tax officers in A. P. Commercial Tax Service

3.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Category-2) in A. P. Police Service.

4.

Regional Transport Officers in the A. P. Transport Service

5.

Assistant Prohibition and Excise Superintendents in A. P. Excise Service.

6.

Mandal Parishad Development Officer in A. P. Panchayat Raj Rural Development Service.

( 5 ) THE notification invited applications only from graduates who are 18 and 33 years of age. With reference to the posts under categories 3 and 5 mentioned above i. e. , deputy Superintendent of Police and assistant Prohibition and Excise superintendents certain qualifications regarding fulfillment of physical fitness were also indicated. The other details of the notification may not be necessary except to state that it indicated that candidates responding to the notification must possess the requisite academic qualification from a recognized University as on the date of the notification. In so far as the minimum and maximum ages of the candidates seeking employment are concerned, the notification indicated that such age limits should be reckoned as on 1-7-2003.

( 6 ) UNDER the notification, the selection process is indicated. It consists of a screening test to which all the applicants, who are eligible in terms of the criteria indicated in the notification, would be permitted. Thereafter, a written examination called main examination is to be conducted for those candidates who are successful in the preliminary examination. The main examination, in turn, consists of a compulsory paper in English, one paper in general Studies, one paper in General Essay writing and four papers in two optional subjects chosen by each of the candidate. Each one of the above mentioned papers carries 150 marks. The success i. e. , securing minimum prescribed marks in the compulsory english paper is a condition precedent for consideration of the candidate for selection. In o

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