At issue in this bench of writ petitions, is the legality validity of the selection made by the J&K Public Service Commission and the consequent appointments to 17 Gazetted Services of the State. Since the points raised in the writ petitions are predominantly legal the facts pale into insignificance, a brief reference thereto may be sufficient.

The Government of Jammu and Kashmir by Notification SRO 548 of 1975 dated 26th November, 1975 framed rules governing direct recruitment to four state Gazetted services mentioned in the said SRO. The rules envisage the holding of a competitive examination for selec­ting direct recruits by the J&K Public Service Commission commonly called and hereinafter referred to as the combined Competitive Exami­nation. It is common ground that subsequent to the framing of the aforesaid rules, the Government by Government order No. 1285-GD of 1983 dated 28th August 1983 extended the application of the rates to as many as 15 Gazetted Services in place of four services initially mentioned SRO 548.

The Public Service Commission on the receipt of a requisition from the State Government appears to have issued a Notification in the year 1979 inviting applic