1. Petitioners and private respondents responded to the Advertisement notice issued by the Jammu & Kashmir Service Selection Board (hereinafter the Board) in 1997-98 inviting applications from eligible candidates for available vacancies of Foresters/Forest Inspector, Divisional cadre Jammu. They participated in the selection process and, on the strength of their merit, found place in the select list published by the Board on May 16th 1998. Petitioners applied under reserve categories, were selected under OBC category (petitioner No.1) and Resident of Backward Area category (petitioners 2 to 7). The private respondents (respondent 4 to 7) appeared in the select list in Open Merit category at Sr. Nos. 21, 27, 30 and 32.

2. The Board on completion of selection process, made recommendation for appointment of selected candidates, to the indenting department. The Government forwarded the list to the concerned agency for verification of antecedents of the selected candidates. As the candidates belonged to different districts of Jammu Division, verification reports were received on different dates. The Government issued appointment order in favour of a selected candidate on receipt of his v

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