By the Court.—By this petition the petitioners have challenged the impugned order, dated 23.7.2005, passed by the respondent No. 4, contained in Annexure 5 to the writ petition, whereby the respondent No. 5 was appointed on the post of Medical Officer Ayurvedic on contract basis initially for a period of one year, which can be extended for a period of 3 years. A further relief of mandamus is sought for directing the respondent No. 4 to declare the result of Primary Health Centre Milak Khanam District Rampur.

2. The relief sought in the writ petition rests on the allegations that an advertisement was published in the daily newspaper, Dainik Jagaran dated 13.3.2005 by the respondent No. 4 inviting applications for holding selection on the post of Ayurvedic and Unani Medical Officer on contract basis in pursuance of Government Order dated 3.2.2005 in District Rampur. In pursuance thereof being fully eligible and qualified the petitioners applied for the post. Thereafter on 18.3.2005 a clarification in the advertisement was made about the reservation of post. The selection was to be made only on the basis of interview and academic performance. Initially the interview was scheduled to be held on 23.3.2005, but it was changed subsequently and again it was scheduled to be held on 3.6.2005 at 10.00 a.m. It is alleged that the respondent No. 5 who is the son of the respondent No. 4 has also applied for the post in question, which was advertised by the respondent No. 4 on 13.3.2005. For holding selection and conducting the interview a selection committee was constituted by District Magistrate, Rampur who was the Chairman of the said selection committee and the respondent No. 4 the father of the respondent No. 5 became Secretary of the said selection committee apart from 3 other members who have also been appointed as members of that selection committee. As scheduled the interview took place on 3.6.2005. It is alleged that the Chairman of Selection Committee was not present when the interview was held by selection committee the Secretary of the aforesaid selection committee/the respondent No. 4 has participated in the interview and he himself has selected his son the respondent No. 5 on the post of Medical Officer of Primary Health Centre, Meerapur district Rampur.

3. It is further alleged that the petitioner No. 2 belongs to scheduled caste and he has applied for the post of Medical Officer in Primary Health Centre, Meerapur District Rampur and the respondent No. 5 and one Dr. Alok Kumar have also applied for the same post. It is also alleged that in G.O. dated 3.2.2005, under which the selection was held, it was stipulated that the applicant must be permanent resident of the same district where he has applied and when competent suitable candidates are not available in the district concerned the candidates of neighbour district may also be considered for selection in Primary Health Centre, but the respondent 4 has appointed his son on the post of Medical Officer at Primary Health Centre, Meerapur District Rampur in respect of which the petitioner No. 2 has applied whereas the respondent No. 5 is a permanent resident of district Lakhimpur Khiri and he is a permanent practitioner of said district which is far away about 250 Km from Rampur. The petitioner No. 1 applied in respect of the post of Medical Officer at Primary Health Centre, Milak Khanam Rampur though interview in respect of which was held on 3.6.2005 under the respondent No. 4 but the result of the aforesaid Primary Health Centre, has not been declared by the respondent No. 4 till the date. Feeling aggrieved against which the petitioners submitted their representation before the respondent No. 4 for declaration of their result on 9.8.2005 but till today the respondent No. 4 has not declared the result of the petitioners.

4. A detailed counter-affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondent Nos. 1 to 4 in the writ petition whereby the relevant reply of the averments co