By the Court.—Under challenge in this special appeal is the judgment and order of the learned single Judge dated 29.4.2007 passed in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 3790 of 2004, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava and others v. State of U.P. and others, concerning selection and appointment of class - IV employees and a driver of the judgeship of the district Kaushambi. The writ petition of the appellants herein was dismissed by the learned single Judge and the selection of the respondents No. 4 to 25 was held to be valid.

2. Two separate advertisements were issued by the District Judge, Kaushambi on 28.5.2003. The first advertisement, apart from inviting applications for the posts of Stenographers and Clerks, sought to fill up 21 posts of class-IV employees. The second advertisement was in respect of a solitary post of driver.

3. The advertisement for the post of class-IV employees provided that the minimum qualification for applying for the said post is class-VIII pass or an equivalent qualification thereto with good knowledge of Hindi and ability to read and write numbers in English. For the purpose of selection it was also provided that for testing knowledge of Hindi a written test shall be held on 6th July, 2003 which shall be followed by an interview on 7th July, 2003.

4. The advertisement for the post of driver provided that the driving test shall be held on 30.6.2003 and on the same day a test of knowledge in Hindi and interview would be conducted. Thus, the selection of the driver was based upon written test of knowledge in Hindi, driving test and interview.

5. In pursuance of the above advertisement a total of 3786 candidates applied, including the petitioners who are appellants here in this appeal. They had earlier worked in the judgeship on ad hoc/temporary basis but their services were terminated on 20.5.2003. They were allowed to continued in service under the orders of this Court passed in earlier writ petition No. 24090 of 2003 and were also permitted to participate in the selection. The District Judge constituted a committee consisting of three judicial officers Sri Amarjeet Singh, Additional District Judge, Sri Mahipat Singh Verma, Chief Judicial Magistrate and Sri P.C. Dwivedi, Civil Judge for the purposes of selection. For the class-III employees the written test was held as scheduled and the candidates were interviewed on 12/13.7.2003. Finally, a select list of 41 persons was notified on 31.7.2003. As regards driver the driving test as well as a very short written test was conducted on 11.7.03. It appears that no interview was taken. Fifteen candidates appeared in the test and the select list was declared on 31.7.2003 in which respondent No. 25 was declared successful and selected.

6. Against the aforesaid selection certain complaints were received by the High Court on administrative side. Accordingly, report from the District Judge was called for and the District Judge after enquiry submitted a report on 4.11.2003. On further query a supplementary/second report was made by the District Judge on 27.11.2003 whereupon the High Court permitted the selection to be completed by offering appointments to the selected candidates. Consequently, appointments were made by order dated 14.1.2004 and the appellants were discharged from service. In the aforesaid background, the appellants filed writ petition praying for quashing the order dated 14.1.2004 terminating their services, select list dated 31.7.2003 and consequent appointment letters issued to the selected candidates on 14.1.2004.

7. In the writ petition the selection was challenged inter alia on the grounds that the same is in violation of the statutory rules; the original select list had been lost; answer books of the candidates were not properly evaluated and each member of the selection committee has not given separate marks to the candidates in interview. Apart from taking the above grounds, a ground for regularisation was also raised, though no specific prayer