JUDGMENT

Jaswant Singh, J. - By instituting the instant petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioners namely Jagjit Singh and Gurcharan Jaidka belonging to General Category, aspirants for the post of Clerk/Clerk-cum-Data Entry Operator have sought quashing of select/merit list dated 10.10.2016 (Annexure P-4) on the ground that petitioners are qualified Graduate Degree holders from Sikkim Manipal University which is duly recognized by University Grant Commission (for short 'UGC'), and have been wrongly considered ineligible having acquired their Graduate Degrees through Distant Education Mode, thus possessing invalid degrees. They claim right of consideration based on their secured merit for appointment with effect from dates candidates junior in merit in their category have been appointed.

2. Respondent No. 2-Subordinate Service Selection Board, Punjab (for short 'Board') vide Advertisement No. 4 of 2015 dated 27.11.2015 (Annexure P-1), invited online applications for recruitment of 556 posts of Clerks and 58 posts of Clerk-cum-Data Entry Operator. The posts of Clerks were subsequently increased to 2715 through different corrigendum. The minimum qualification