Koshy, J.

All these Writ appeals and original petition relate to appointment to the post of Public Prosecutors/ Assistant Public Prosecutors Grade II. All the petitioners and contesting respondents other than the State are Advocates practising in various courts in the State. Since some of the Advocates are practicing in this Court and are known to us, we asked the Advocates appearing in these cases and they stated that they have no objection in hearing the matter by this Bench. For the sake of convenience, we are mainly relying on the exhibits mentioned in O.P. No 16441/99 and Annexures produced in W.A. 1681/02 unless otherwise referred to.

2. Government issued notification No 47996/C4/97/ Home dated 19.08.1997 inviting applications from eligible candidates for appointment to the post of Assistant Public Prosecutors Grade II in the scale of pay of Rs 2060-3200 (Ext P2 in O.P. 16157/01). The number of vacancies mentioned in the notification in 13. The above notification was published in various newspapers also to show that there was effective publication. The eligibility criteria was mentioned in paragraph B as follows:

(a)(i) Must be a graduate in Law and must not have completed 35 years of age on the first day of January 1997, (ii) Must be a member of the Bar and must have had not less than 3 years of active practice in Criminal court on the 1st day of January 1997.

Note : Usual relaxation in upper age limit shall be allowed to candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled tribes and other Backward Classes.

In the above notification, it is stated that applications will be scrutinised by the District Collectors and selection will be made on the basis of an interview conducted by a committee of officers constituted by Government. Applications were to be in the prescribed form and the format was also published along with the advertisement and notification.

3. Appointments to the above posts of Assistant Public Prosecutor Gr. II are covered by Special rules for the Post of Legal Advisor to the Vigilance Division, Additional legal Advisor to the Vigilance Division of Assistant Public Prosecutors. The above rules were published on 16th September, 1996. Qualification for appointment is mentioned in clause 7 which reads as follows:

"For appointment as Assistant Public Prosecutor grade II, a candidate shall possess the following qualifications, namely:-

(i) Must be a graduate in law and must not have completed 35 years of age on the first day of January of the year in which applications are invited, and

(ii) Must be member of the Bar and must have had not less than three years of active practice in criminal courts on the 1st day of january of the year in which applications are invited.

(iii) Note : Usual relaxation in upper age limit shall be allowed to candidates belonging to SCs/ SCs and other backward Classes.

The above rule also permitted temporary appointments pending appointment of the permanent prosecutors. Apart from the above rules Executive order G.O. (MS) No 150/97/ Home dated 30.05.1997 was issued by the Government in the matter of Assistant Public prosecutors (produced as Annexure AI along with W.A 1681/02). The format of application itself was prescribed by the above Government order. As per the Government order retirement vacancies will have to be notified 6 months prior to retirement of there is no existence of rank list at the time or retirement and every application shall be accompanied with the following documents.

i) S.S.L.C

ii) Community certificate from Tahsildar where the candidates belongs to Backward Classes or SC/ST.

iii) Degree Certificate.

iv) Certificate of practice by the presiding officer, of the courts in which the candidates had practiced.

4. Scrutiny of the applications shall also given very importance in the above in the above rules as per Clause (F) which reads as follows:

"The applications will be scrutinised for defect by the district collectors. Direct enquiries arranged by the District collecto