A.S. SUPEHIA, J.

1. Since the issues raised in both the captioned writ petitions are same they were heard analogously and being decided and disposed of by this common judgment.

2. For convenience, Special Civil Application No.61 of 2010 is taken as lead case. Brief facts, which led to the filing of the petition, are as follows:

3. The petitioner cleared the S.S.C examination in the Science Stream of the Gujarat Secondary Education Board held in March, 1998. The petitioner also passed Primary Teachers Certificate (PTC) examination of the Gujarat State Examination Board in April-May 2006 with 86.06%.

4. Respondent no.3 issued an advertisement dated 21.12.2009 inviting applications for the recruitment of 1014 Vidya sahayaks. The petitioner being qualified applied for the said post. Apprehending the rejection of his application on the ground of age bar, the petitioner has filed the present petition challenging the action of the respondents in granting the benefit of age relaxation to the reserved category candidates. In the alternative, he has prayed to grant the age relaxation as granted to the reserved categories.

5. Learned Advocate Mr. Pujara has contended that the respondent authorities have violated their own rules in not initiating the recruitment procedure as envisaged therein. He has referred to Rule 3 of the Gujarat Panchayat Service (Recruitment of Primary Teachers) Rules, 1970, which prescribes the procedure filling up the vacancies. Rule 3 reads as under:

“RULE 3 : Preparation of estimates of vacancies by Administrative Officer etc

(i) In the first week of March of each year, the Administrative Officer shall prepare estimate of vacancies in the staff of primary teachers, likely to arise in the district upto the end of August in the ensuing school year. In framing such estimate, he shall take into account the state required under the scheme of expansion as well as for filling vacancies likely to occur on account of deputation of teachers to training colleges, likely increase in the number of pupils, transfer and retirement of teachers and such other circumstances. He shall then take steps to invite application so as to reach his office on or before the 1st April, from the qualified candidates by giving advertisement in one or more local newspapers. The advertisement shall indicate the prices particulars required to be mentioned in the application, including the particulars showing whether the applicant belongs to a Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes or not.

(ii) The Director of Education shall communicate every year the number of seats for deputation to training colleges to each Administrative Officer and each of committees before the month of March as far as possible.

(iii) The Administrative Officer shall also prepare every year in the first week of August a like estimate of the vacancies likely to arise in the district from September to the close of the School year and take steps to invite applications from the candidates so as to reach his office or on before 1st September, by giving advertisement in the manner laid down in clause (i).”

6. Mr. Pujara has emphasized that Rule 3(iii) casts a duty on the Administrative Office to prepare a list of vacancies in the first week of August, which are likely to arise in the district from September to the close of the school year and further take steps to invite applications from the candidates. He has submitted that in the present case no such steps were taken, hence, the advertisement was issued belatedly in 2009. He has stated that the last advertisement was issued on 21.04.2008 and, after a gap of 20 months it was again issued in the month of December, 2009, which has caused great prejudice to the petitioner since the petitioner had become over aged when the next advertisement was published in 2009. Thus, he has submitted that the petitioner is entitled to the benefit of age relaxation.

7. In support of his contention, Mr. Pujara has relied on the following observ