ORDER :

Satyen Vaidya, J.

Since common question of law and facts are involved in both these petitions, therefore, the same are being decided by a common judgment. The only distinguishing fact in CWP 4902 of 2021 is that the petitioner in said case though had cleared the cut off criteria but had not been offered the appointment. To maintain clarity, facts in CWP 6315 of 2021 are being taken into consideration.

2. The Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (in short “HPSSC”) vide Advertisement No. 34-1/2018 dated 27.06.2018 invited applications from eligible candidates for various posts in different Departments/Boards/Corporations of Government of Himachal Pradesh, including 123 posts of Junior Engineer (Civil) [for short “JE(C)”] in Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department (for short, “HPPWD”) against post Code No. 695. The number of declared vacancies were later increased to 125.

3. Government of Himachal Pradesh has framed Recruitment and Promotion Rules for the post of J.E (C), Class-III, Non-Gazetted in HPPWD (for short, “R&P Rules”). The essential qualifications for the post of J.E (C), as per R&P Rules, are as under : -

“Essential Qualifications:

(i) Should have passed matriculation examination or its equivalent from a recognized Board/University.

(ii) Regular full time Diploma in Civil Engineering (three years) or its equivalent from an institution/University duly recognized by the Central or State Government.”

Correspondingly, the HPSSC, vide advertisement dated 27.6.2018, prescribed essential qualification for the post of JE(C). Nonetheless, certain candidates with graduation in Civil Engineering (for short, “Graduate Engineers”) also submitted their applications.

4. HPSSC conducted written objective type test on 18.11.2018. Total 385 candidates qualified the screening test. Evaluation process was undertaken from 09.04.2019 to 12.04.2019. HPSSC rejected the candidature of all those candidates, who were not possessing regular three years Diploma in Civil Engineering. HPSSC declared result on 27.9.2019 and total 102 candidates including the petitioners qualified.

5. Petitioners and other selected candidates were issued appointment letters in the months of January and February, 2020. Petitioners joined their respective places of posting. 23 posts of J.E(C) still remained vacant.

6. The graduate engineers whose candidature was rejected by the HPSSC, for not possessing three years regular Diploma in Civil Engineering, had approached this Court by way of various Civil Writ Petitions, detail of which is as under: -

“CWP No. 2801/2019, CWP No. 2788/2019, CWP No. 2940/2019, CWP No. 2946/2019, CWP No. 3093/2021, CWP No. 3415/2019 and CWP No. 2141/2020.”

The main grievance of Graduate Engineers was that they held higher qualification and therefore, were also eligible for the post of JE (C).

7. This court in a bunch of writ petitions with the lead case being CWP No. 138 of 2020 titled Robin Kumar and others Vs State of H.P and others, while dealing with an identical issue pertaining to recruitment of Junior Engineers (Electrical) in Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board, had negated the claim of Graduate Engineers. The judgment of this court was set aside by Hon’ble Supreme Court vide judgment passed in Puneet Sharma Vs Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board and others reported in AIR 2021 SC 2221 and the Graduate Engineers were held eligible for the post of Junior Engineer along with Diploma Engineers.

8. Accordingly, all the above noted petitions filed by graduate engineers were decided by this Court by a common judgment dated 05.07.2021 in the following terms: -

“The parties are at ad - idem that the issue in question is squarely covered by the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Puneet Sharma & Ors. vs. Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited & Ors., AIR 2021 SC 2221.

2. Accordingly, all these petitions are disposed of in terms of the aforesaid judgment, the ratio whereof shall apply mutatis mutandis to all t