JUDGMENT

1. The 52 (fifty-two) writ petitioners in the present 49 (forty-nine) writ petitions cries foul with their discharge from service during the period of probation and pleads in one voice that the Court should lift the veil to reach and ascertain the intention and reason behind the issuance of the impugned orders. The petitioners submit that their discharge from service is based on alleged misconduct and it is the report of the investigation carried out by the Dibrugarh Police Station that propelled and became the foundation of the impugned action.

2. The imputations against each of the writ petitioners finds recorded in the respective supplementary charge-sheets, which came about following investigations in Dibrugarh P.S. Case No. 936/2016, on the basis of an FIR dated 27.10.2016 lodged by one Dr. Angshumita Gogoi of Namrup, district Dibrugarh, alleging to the effect that one Naba Kanta Patir contacted and told her to pay Rs.10 lakhs in consideration of her recruitment to a post of Dental Surgeon in the exercise carried out by the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC). Said Sri Patir demanded that the amount of Rs.10 lakhs be brought to his residence at Dibrugarh on 27.10.2016. She had informed the matter to the Dibrugarh Police and on the said date i.e. 27.10.2016 Sri Patir was apprehended from his residential premise located at the Circuit House Road while in the process of receiving the amount from the complainant. Following further investigations, each of the petitioners were arrested and implicated as accused with imputations being more or less the same. Investigations revealed that one accused Sri Rakesh Kumar Paul (A-3), who was the Chairman of APSC, along with his brother Sri Rajib Paul (A-9), who is a businessman and the owner of the printing house Subhadeep Printers and one Sri Sudip Das (A-10), another businessman, colluded with each other and used to print duplicate and fake APSC answer scripts, which were given to the writ petitioners for re-writing the answers again after the examination. The re-written answer scripts were thereafter replaced with the original answer scripts in connivance with one Sri Pabitra Kaibarta (A-5), the then Assistant Controller of Examinations, APSC, for the purpose of getting the writ petitioners selected in the Combined Competitive Examination of 2013 and 2014 respectively, conducted by the APSC. The duplicate and fake answer scripts of the writ petitioners were recovered and seized from the Confidential Examination Branch of APSC. The forensic examination of the seized answer scripts revealed that the same were not printed in the Government Press and the handwriting of marks is of Rakesh Kumar Paul (A-3). In the said answer scripts, either there was no signature of the Invigilator or in case of any signature appearing, the same were found to be fake and mis-matched with the signature of the concerned Invigilator.

3. The entry of the writ petitioners into service may now be noticed. One set of petitioners are from the 2015 batch of candidates, who had cleared the Combined Competitive Examination-2013 under the aegis of the Assam Public Service Commission, pursuant to Advertisement dated 11.08.2013. As many as 42,553 candidates had appeared in the Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, out of which 2287 nos. of candidates appeared in the Main Examination on being so qualified. Candidates qualifying and called for interview stood at 497 nos. and finally 241 candidates were selected and recommended for appointment to various services under the Government of Assam, having regard to options expressed by the candidates. Another set of petitioners are from the 2016 batch of candidates who had qualified in the Combined Competitive Examination-2014 pursuant to Advertisement dated 03.04.2014. As many as 24,722 candidates appeared in the Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination and from amongst those qualifying, a total of 1550 nos. of candidates appeared in the Main Examin