ORDER :

GANNAMANENI RAMAKRISHNA PRASAD, J.

Heard Sri G.V. Shivaji, Sri Y. Mallikarjuna Reddy and Sri Harish Kumar Rasineni, Learned Counsel for the Writ Petitioners and Sri Kalyan Chakravarthi, learned Government Pleader for Village and Ward Secretariats.

Factual Background:

2. The present batch of Writ Petitions raise multiple issues. The factual background is that the Government of Andhra Pradesh has issued G.O.Ms.No.110, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department dated 19.07.2019 for the purpose of implementation of certain Governmental Schemes; that in the process of the implementation of these schemes, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has introduced ‘Village Secretariats’ in the place of erstwhile Gram Panchayats and had also assigned additional tasks in addition to the usual business undertaken by the erstwhile Gram Panchayats; that the said Village Secretariats would have number of functional assistants; that para No.14 of the said G.O.Ms.No.110 contemplates that the existing staff of the concerned ‘line departments’ would be properly accommodated to the extent possible; that proper ‘Guidelines’ would be issued for the appointment of Secretariat Functionaries; and that one group of such Secretariat Functionaries would be named as the ‘Village Horticulture Assistants’. This cadre of ‘Village Horticulture Assistants’ was created for the first time and therefore such posts were not governed by the existing Rules which are called the A.P Horticulture Subordinate Service Rules, 2005. Therefore, the recruitment was sought to be done only on the basis of Executive Instructions. The present controversy revolves around the ‘qualifications/prescription of criteria by the Government’ for the posts of ‘Village Horticulture Assistants’ due to the absence of the statutory Rules for this newly created cadre.

3. Learned Counsel for the Writ Petitioners would submit that the Government of Andhra Pradesh have initiated a Recruitment Drive for filling up the posts of Village Horticulture Assistants, who would work in the Village Secretariats; that about 4000 posts were created for the first time and notified on 26.07.2019 bearing Notification No. 1/Horti/2019; that after completion of the Recruitment Drive under the Notification No.1/Horti/2019 based on the criteria formulate by Executive Instructions, dated 26.07.2019 (Ex.P1), about 1783 posts of Village Horticulture Assistants were left-over unfilled due to unavailability of candidates possessing such qualification/ experience as prescribed by the Government; that for the purpose of filling up of the left-over 1783 posts, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has issued Notification No.1/Horti/2020, dated 10.01.2020; that the eligibility criteria for this recruitment was also formulated by the Executive (due to absence of statutory Rules); that the mode of examination would be objective type questions which are to be answered ‘offline-mode’ using OMR Sheets by following the instructions given in Annexure-III of the Notification; and that Para No.3 of the said Notification No.1/Horti/2020 dated 10.01.2020 relating to the educational qualifications had prescribed conditions (for the posts of Village Horticulture Assistants) which are as under:

PARA-3: EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

A candidate shall possess the academic qualifications for the post on the date of the notification.

The candidates having either of the following qualifications are eligible for the post of Village Horticulture Assistant.

1) Must possess 4 years B.Sc Horticulture/ B.Sc (Hons.) Horticulture/ B.Tech. Horticulture from any University accredited by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt., of India. New Delhi (or) any University recognized in the State

2) Must Possess 2 years Diploma in Horticulture (from Dr. YSRHU ANGRAU recognized)

WEIGHTAGE OF MARKS (10%)

Candidates with any of the above educational qualification and have rendered or are working in any of the Governme