1. The petitioners, who were appointed to Punjab Civil Service (Executive Branch) and Allied Services (for short. PCS (Executive Branch) and Allied Services) and Punjab Civil Services (Judicial Branch) (for short, PCS (Judicial Branch) on recommendations made by the Punjab Public Service Commission (for short, the Commission) during the tenure of Sh. Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu as its Chairman have prayed for quashing orders dated 23.5.2002, 24.8.02 and 27.9.2002 issued by the State Government terminating their services.

2. For deciding the issues arising in these petitions, we may briefly notice the facts relating to selection made between 1998 and 2001 for appointment to the three services. PCS (Executive Branch) and Allied Services (Direct Recruitment). By an advertisement issued in February, 1998, the Commission invited applications for recruitment against 28 vacancies in PCS (Executive Branch) and 63 vacancies in Allied Services. In all, 13094 candidates appeared in the preliminary examination held on 29.3.1998. Out of them, 1097 candidates were declared successful. The main written examination was held between 2.7.1998 and 2.8.1998 and the result was declared on 25.1.1999