Judgment :

Ali Mohammad Magrey, J.

1. In the three appeals, being LPASW No. 35/2019; LPA No.117/2019; and LPA No.237/2019, the decisions of the learned Single Judge are under challenge, whereby the appellants/ respondents in the Writ petitions have been directed to call the Writ petitioners/ respondents herein for counselling, verify their documents and assess their grade by awarding weightage of higher qualification denied to them on account of having omitted to fill-up the requisite column in their online application forms. Besides, certain Writ petitions were also noticed to be pending before the Writ Court involving the same question of fact and the law qua denial of award of marks to higher qualification(s) on the ground of same having been omitted in the online application forms, which petitions, on the consensus of the learned counsel for the parties, stand clubbed herewith these appeals for their decision together. Moreover, in certain Writ petitions the consideration orders issued by the respondents therein (Board) pursuant to the directions of the learned Single Judge rejecting the claim of the petitioners have been assailed. Accordingly, the upshot of this factual discourse is that the controversy in this entire litigation before us revolves round the question as to whether the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Recruitment Board was justified in denying the award of weightage to higher qualification to the credit of the concerned candidates/ Writ petitioners/ respondents in the appeals prior to the date of issuance of the advertisement on the ground of same having not been mentioned by them during the process of filling up their online application forms. That being so, we propose to decide these appeals as well as the clubbed Writ petitions by virtue of this common judgment.

2. Before appreciating the arguments of the learned counsel for the parties, it shall be appropriate to have a glance at the brief material facts wherein the genesis of the present litigation lies, infra.

3. The Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Recruitment Board (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Board’) invited applications from amongst the eligible candidates for selection against the posts of Teacher vide notification Nos. 06/2017/01 to 06/2017/14 dated 28th of December, 2017 (General Line); 06/2017/15 to 06/2017/28 dated 28th of December, 2017 (Science/ Maths); and 06/2017/29 to 06/2017/42 dated 28th of December, 2017 for different Districts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (now bifurcated into two Union Territories, viz. (i) Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir; and (ii) Union Territory of Ladakh). Thereafter, the Board declared results/ provisional shortlists with respect to the aforesaid notifications on the basis of the following criteria which was earmarked in the advertisement notifications:

After issuance of the provisional shortlists with reference to the selection process in question, a number of representations were filed by certain competing candidates before the Board stating therein that they have not been given the additional points for higher qualification on the ground of same having been omitted in their online application forms, resulting in their non-inclusion in the provisional shortlists and inclusion of less meritorious candidates than them. When no decision on the said representations was taken by the Board despite lapse of a considerable period of time, the said candidates approached the Writ Court through the medium of Writ petitions seeking a direction upon the respondent Board to award appropriate points to them for possessing hig