JUDGMENT :

Lapita Banerji, J.

WPA 2515 of 2023 is de-tagged from WPA 8506 of 2021.

1. Under challenge in the writ petition in WPA 8506 of 2021, is the selection process under notification dated July 22, 2020 for the post of “Banasahayaks”. The vacancies to the said post were to be filled up as purely contractual engagements. 2000 (two thousand) vacancies were notified in five administrative divisions – (a) Presidency Division, (b) Medinipur Division, (c) Burdwan Division, (d) Malda Division and (e) Jalpaiguri Division.

2. The candidates were to be aged between eighteen (18) years and forty (40) years as on January 1 of the year of application. Thus, for the applications made in 2020 the date of birth of the candidates was required to be within January 1, 1980 and December 31, 2001. Relaxation of five (5) years was allowed to be made in respect of upper age limit of Scheduled caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates. The selection process of the candidates is as follows:

“3. Selection Process

a. All applications will be initially screened for location of residence for the respective Engagement Boards and the ones that are not summarily rejected shall be then screened for other qualifying criteria

b. Post – screening, eligible applicants will be called for an evaluation – cum interview by the concerned Engagement Board with original documents. The Board will verify the original certificates of each candidate – Age Certificate, Residence Proof, Educational Qualification and photo ID.

c. The eligible candidates shall be subject to an evaluation – cum- interview and personality test. The marking of the candidates will be done on the following criteria:

d. All the three members of the Engagement Board shall award marks to each candidate as per above criteria out of a total of 100 and the merit list shall be prepared by adding the marks given by each member and organizing the evaluated candidates in the descending order of marks obtained out of 300. In case of candidates getting same marks, the age of candidate will be taken in consideration, with same age and marks, the candidate scoring higher in the General Knowledge Oral Test will rank higher.

e. ‘A’ CEB – wise select list will be prepared containing names of candidates who score marks up to a cut-off to be finalized by the respective CEB.

f. Engagement shall be made against the numbers of posts allotted to the Circle, on the basis of ranking in the select list.

g. Persons unfit for forestry works will be rejected outright, giving the reason.

h. All Members Secretaries of the CEB will prepared the final Marking List and keep it in confidential custody till they are instructed to publish the same under specify orders from the PCCP & HoFF, West Bengal. It will be the personal responsibility of the Member Secretary of the CEB to keep the results in confidence, so that the engagement process of other Boards is not vitiated due to lapse of any nature by anyone”.

3. Each Circle Engagement Board would comprise of three members. It would be headed by the Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) and two Divisional Forest Officers (DFC)/Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCFs). The jurisdiction of each CEB for the purpose of engagement is also described in the said advertisement dated July 22, 2020.

4. Mr. Chatterjee, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners submits that the petitioner nos. 1, 2 and 3 are from Burdwan district, petitioner no.4 is from North 24 Parganas and the petitioner no.5 is from Paschim Medinipur.

5. It is the grievance of the petitioners that the selection process was not conducted fairly and/or transparently. The merit list of