Smt. Mhatre, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith, with the consent of the parties. Since the issues involved in both these petitions are the same, they have been heard together, with the consent of the parties.

2. The challenge in both these petitions is to the selection of the private respondents (hereinafter referred to as the respondents) to the posts of Civil Engineering Assistants, pursuant to the advertisement No. 2/2008. The petitioners claim that these respondents did not possess the qualifications required for being selected to the posts of the Civil Engineering Assistants, in consonance with the recruitment rules. The petitioners contend that each of them had undertaken a special course expected to be completed by candidates aspiring to be Civil Engineering Assistants, whereas the respondents had no such qualification. In essence, therefore, what has been challenged in the present petition, is the selection of the respondents to the posts of the Civil Engineering Assistants.

3. Mr. Khandare, the learned Government Pleader appearing for the State and its officers, who are arraigned as the respondents in the petitions, and Mr. Deshmukh, the learned Counse