Surya Kant, J.

1. Whether the allegations of fraud in public employment centrestaged on the "procedure and mechanism" adopted by the State of Punjab in the wholesome selection of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) from "Outstanding Sports Persons", can be a subject matter of public interest litigation or not and whether this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India can entertain such public interest litigation, even if it is found to be a probono publico to prevent and remedy the abuse and misuse of executive powers by the State apparatus, or it shall amount to mere adjudication of "competing claims" between two sets of parties with no element of larger public interest involved ? are some of the vital issues to which this larger Bench is confronted with. The other related issues pertaining to the legality and propriety of these selections have also been raised in certain individual writ petitions which we propose to dispose of along with the public interest litigation.

2. Two Civil Writ Petitions bearing CWP No. 2527 of 2004 and 3384 of 2004, dubbed as Public Interest Litigation, have been filed by Sarvshri Jaskaran Singh Brar and Ravdip Singh Atwal. In the first writ petition, the petitioner (Jaskaran Singh Brar) has come up with the following prayers : (i) a writ in the nature of mandamus may be issued commanding the official respondents to stop the process initiated for recruitment to the ex-cadre posts of DSPs in Punjab Police for which an advertisement was published in the newspaper "The Tribune, Chandigarh" dated February 7, 2004 (Annexure P-2), (ii) a direction be issued to the State of Punjab to forward the requisition to fill up the aforementioned posts to the Punjab Public Service Commission and to follow the proper procedure prescribed under Rule 6 of the Punjab Police Service Rules, 1959 ; and (iii) the official respondents be directed to give wide publicity and sufficient time for conducting and concluding the recruitment process.

3. This writ petition appears to have been drafted on February 11, 2004 and on its filing, carne up for hearing before a Division Bench of this Court on February 13, 2004 when, while issuing notice to the State of Punjab, a direction was issued that "any action taken shall be subject to the result of this writ petition".

4. Civil Writ Petition No. 3348 of 2004 (Ravdip Singh Atwal-Petitioner) has been filed with the following prayers :-

- (i) a writ in the nature of quo-warranto be issued thereby setting aside the appointments of respondent Nos. 4 to 10 as DSPs in the Punjab Police ; (ii) a writ in the nature of mandamus be issued directing respondent Nos. 1 to 3 that the posts of DSPs earmarked for outstanding sports persons be filled only out of the deserving and meritorious candidates there being no extraneous consideration ; (iii) a writ in the nature of prohibition may be issued restraining respondent Nos. 1 to 3 from issuing appointment letters to respondent Nos. 4 to 10 and also to issue an ad-interim order to retrain the aforementioned respondents from joining the post of DSP. This writ petition came up for hearing before a Division Bench of this Court on February 27, 2004 when notice was issued to the respondents.

5 We have purposely referred to the dates when the aforementioned two writ petitions came up for hearing and the nature of reliefs prayed therein. The dates of filing of the two writ petitions indicate that the material events pertaining to the impugned selections have taken place between February 7, 2004 till the second writ petition was filed, namely, February 27, 2004.

6. Let us take notice of those events as well. On February 7, 2004, an advertisement was issued by the Department of Home Affairs and Justice, Government of Punjab in the Newspaper The Tribune, Chandigarh for "recruitment of ex-cadre posts of DSP reserved for outstanding sports person in Punjab Police as one time measure". It was stipulated in