ORDER :

Precise question, which has fallen for determination in the cases at hand is that, “whether the vacancies, if any occurred in a particular year during the subsistence of the ongoing selection process pursuant to the advertisement inviting applications for filling up 06 existing vacancies and 02 anticipated vacancies of Civil Judges (Junior Division), could be filled up from amongst the candidates borne on Select List prepared on the basis of merit drawn in the ongoing selection process?”

2. Since the issue raised in all the above captioned writ petitions pertains to appointment to the posts of Civil Judges (Junior Division), in the State of Himachal Pradesh, pursuant to advertisement dated 1.2.2013, whereby Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission invited applications from eligible candidates for filling up 08 vacancies of Civil Judges (Junior Division) in Himachal Pradesh Judicial Services and all the petitioners are aggrieved of their non-selection to the aforesaid posts, as such, these petitions were tagged and heard together and are being disposed of vide this common judgment.

3. For having bird’s eye view of the matter and for the sake of brevity, facts and annexures of CWP No. 1730 of 2014, are being discussed herein. Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (hereinafter, ‘Commission’) vide advertisement No. VII/2012 dated 1.2.2013 (Annexure P2) invited applications from eligible candidates for Himachal Pradesh Judicial Services against the posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division). Vide aforesaid advertisement, 08 vacancies of Civil Judges (Junior Division) came to be advertised under two categories as under:

4. All the petitioners pursuant to aforesaid advertisement applied for the posts and they all being eligible, were permitted to participate in the preliminary examination. Preliminary examination was held on 12.5.2013 and result thereof was declared on 15.6.2013. All the petitioners after having cleared preliminary examination, were permitted to participate in main examination held with effect from 15th to 18th July, 2013. Vide press note (Annexure P-3 of CWP No. 5871 of 2014), candidates with following roll numbers were declared qualified in the main examination

5. Since three posts were meant for general category, 09 candidates as per their merit were called for interview whereas, under SC, ST and OBC categories, since number of candidates qualifying the main examination was equal to the number of posts available, they all were called for the interview held on 7th and 8th October, 2013. Following candidates were finally selected in the aforesaid interview, as per Press note (Annexure P-5):