NAGENDRA RAI, J.

1. As the common question of facts and law are involved in all the aforesaid three cases they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The petitioners, numbering 103 in C.W.J.C. No. 9746 of 1994 and the sole petitioner in C.W.J.C. No. 10014/94, have filed the applications for quashing the result of the 39th combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred as the "Commission") for filling up the posts under different services under the State Government which has been published in Daily Newspaper, 'Aaj' on 9.10.1994. A copy of the same has been annexed as Annexure 1 in C.W.J.C. No. 9746/94.

C.W.J.C. No. 10171/94 has been filed by the 7 successful candidates in Preliminary test of the said Competitive Examination for quashing the revised syllabus for main examination, i.e. 39th Combined Competitive Examination, as well as for conducting the examination on the basis of the old syllabus and fixing the date of main examination according to convenience of the successful candidates.

2. An advertisement was published in the Newspaper 'Aaj' on 10.5.1994 inviting applications from the eligible candidates for appearing the 39th Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination for appointment to various posts in different services under the State Government. A complete copy of the advertisement has been annexed as Annexure 1 to CWJC No. 10171/94. It has been clearly mentioned in the said advertisement that the applications should be filled up in English. The Competitive Examination shall be held at two stages, namely preliminary and main examinations. The Preliminary test will be held for the purpose of selecting the candidates for appearing in the main examination. The main examination shall consist of written and oral test. Paragraph 7 of the note clearly mentioned that the revised syllabus for the main examination will be similar to the syllabus of the main examination of the Union Public Service Commission the details of which will be published after the approval of the State Government.

4. The petitioners of all the aforesaid three writ applications and others applied in terms of the advertisement wit bin time. Admit Cards were issued to them. The date of examination was fixed on 31st July 1994, which was changed later on to 27.8.1994, on which date the examination was held at different centre and the result of successful candidates of the preliminary test was published in the Notice Board of the Office of the Commission on 7.10.1994. The result was also published in Daily Newspaper 'Aaj' on 9.10.1994, a Copy of which as stated above has been annexed as Annexure-1 to CWJC No. 9746/94.

5. The petitioners of CWJC No. 9746/94 assert that though they have done well in the Preliminary test yet they have been arbitrarily not declared as successful. When they did not find their names in the list of successful candidates they approached the Commission and requested for re-checking and re-totaling of their answer–sheets, but the Commission did not pay any head to their request. Then some of them sent applications by registered post on 31st August 1994 for evaluating their answer–sheets after eliminating wrong questions even then nothing was done by the Commission.

6. They have challenged the result of the Preliminary test on the ground that there is no provision of holding preliminary test under the provisions of the Bihar Civil Service (Executive Branch) and the Bihar Junior Civil Service (Recruitment) Rules 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules). It is also asserted on their behalf that the syllabus for preliminary test was not approved by the State Government as required by the aforesaid Rules. Out of 150 questions in the preliminary test, either the questions or the suggestive answers of 20 questions were wrong and incorrect even then the aforesaid wrong questions were evaluated and the marks were given to the s