Ghulam Mohammed, J.

1. These two writ petitions raise common questions of law relating to the process of selection of women candidates for appointment by the method of direct recruitment to the post of Junior Civil Judges in the Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Service(henceforth referred to as `Judicial Service’) and hence they are heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment. Since the facts are not in dispute, we prefer to set out the facts in WP No. 27080 of 20089, as they were narrated to us.

2. The writ petitioner possesses MA and LLB qualifications. He was enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh in November 2003 and has eversince been practicing at Ranga Reddy District Courts, Hyderabad. Incidentally, he belongs to Backward Class – D category (`BC-D’ for brevity).

3. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has initiated the process of recruitment to 105 posts of Junior Civil Judges in Judicial Service through the notification dated 14.5.2007 calling for applications from qualified candidates - 84 of the notified vacancies are sought to be filled in by the method of `Direct Recruitment’ while the balance 21 are sought to be filled up by t