JUDGMENT :

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally, with the consent of the parties.

2. Petitioner is in employment of respondents as Junior Officer (Security) from 27-11-2012. Respondents had issued an advertisement dated 16-1-2017 for various posts, inter alia, nine posts of Deputy Manager (Security). From said nine posts, one post was reserved for V.J. (A) category along with other reserved and open posts, as under —

Sr. No. Category Number of Posts

1. S.C. 1

2. S.T. 1

3. V.J. (A) 1

4. O.B.C. 1

5. Open 5

3. Petitioner had applied for the post of Deputy Manager from V.J. (A) category. As required, he had participated in selection process. Petitioner appeared at online examination and also was interviewed. A list was published on 19-7-2017 which has been referred to as provisional list. One Nagnath Hanumanth Pachave was shown to have been selected from V.J. (A) category. Petitioner was shown to be at serial No. 2 in wait list from V.J. (A) category containing two names. One Mithun Prem Rathod was above petitioner in said list. Based on said provisional list, candidates were called for document verification on 3-8-2017. On verification, it had surfaced that two persons above