Necessary parties must be included in the petitions, and their absence may prevent the court from adjudicating the various questions raised.

1. These writ petitions raise common questions of fact and law and they are therefore disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The petitioners in these writ petitions were appointed as Village Assistants. The appointments were made by the District Collectors after getting the list of qualified hands from the Employment Exchange. The qualifications necessary for appointment as Village Assistant at that time were that the candidate should have passed the S.S.L.C. Examination, the Village Officers' Test and the Chain Survey Test. It was because the petitioners had these qualifications they were appointed as Village Assistants. On 25th July 1961 the Government, the 1st respondent, issued an order G.O.MS. 709/Rev., dated 25th July 1961 revising the qualifications prescribed for appointment to the post of Village Assistant in the Travancore Cochin area. It is as follows:

"Government issue the following rules with regard to qualifications for direct recruitment to the posts of Village Assistants in the Travancore-Cochin area.

Educational:

Minimum General educational qualification of the S.S.L.C. standard as specified in the schedule to the rules. (This will not however apply to the disbanded village assistants who are awaiting recruitment. For them V.S.L.C. qualification will be sufficient.)

Special qualifications:

Candidates selected by the Public Service Commission should be required to pass the Chain Survey Test after undergoing the three months course at their own cost before they become eligible for appointment. Selected candidates will be given admission to the Chain Survey Schools in accordance with the rank assigned by the Public Service Commission.

Probation:

Candidates appointed will be on probation for a period of two years on duty within a continuous period of three years. During the period of probation they will be required to pass the village officers' test conducted by the Public Service Commission.

Age:

Candidates must not have attained the age of 25 on the 1st day of July of the year in which applications are invited by the Public Service Commission, subject to the usual concession being granted to candidates belonging to the Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes."

Thereafter a notification was issued by the Public Service Commission inviting applications for selection to the post of Village Assistants in the Travancore-Cochin area on the basis of this G.O. Supplementary notifications were issued by the Kerala Public Service Commission in the Gazettes, dated 17th October 1961, 18th May 1962 and 2nd October 1962 relaxing the conditions specified in the original notification in favour of the last grade servants of the Revenue Department, overaged candidates, and provisional Village Assistants appointed directly by the Collector or through their subordinates or through Employment Exchange. All the petitioners applied for appointment as Village Assistants in pursuance of the notification. For making the selection the Government had constituted as per G.O. MS. 631, dated 26th June 1959, District Recruitment Boards in consultation with the Public Service Commission. Government had also directed by G.O. MS. No. 720, dated 27th July 1959 that pending constitution of the District Councils, the District Recruitment Boards will consist of a member of the Public Service Commission as Chairman and the District Collector as a member. The District Recruitment Boards made the selections and drew up lists, but since the rank obtained by the petitioners in the lists were low they were not advised for appointment.

3. The main contentions of the petitioners were that the Government had no right to relax the qualifications originally fixed for appointment to the post of Village Assistants by issuing G.O. MS. 709/ Rev., dated 25th July 1961, as that could have been done only by framing special rules under Art.309 of the Constitution, that the Government cannot by an, executive order prescribe the qualifications for selection