Hon’ble Saumitra Dayal Singh, J.—Heard Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Ramakant Singh and Sri Shantanu Khare, learned counsel for the petitioner; Sri B.N. Singh, learned counsel appearing for the U.P. Higher Education Services Commission (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Commission’), Sri Satendra Tripathi for the intervenors and; learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.

2. By means of the present writ petitions, individual petitioners have prayed to quash the final selection lists, against advertisement No. 46 for the post of Assistant Professor, Zoology (Dhan Devi Mishra is the petitioner in writ petition No. 20227 of 2018 and Manish Kumar Sonkar is the petitioner in writ petition No. 22304 of 2018) and post of Assistant Professor, Physics (Surendra Kumar Mishra is the petitioner in writ petition No. 21087 of 2018). These appointments are to be made at different Degree/Post Graduate Colleges. Further relief has been sought to correct the select list by awarding full marks to the petitioners for certain answers tendered by them which according to the petitioners had been wrongly assessed to be wrong in the revised key answer sheet made available by the Commission.

3. Insofar as writ petition No. 20227 of 2018 is concerned, according to the petitioner-Dhan Devi Mishra the answers to the question Nos. 49, 56 and 85 in the answer key for Booklet Series - C for the subject Zoology and; according to the petitioner-Manish Kumar Sonkar in writ petition No. 22304 of 2018 the answers to the question Nos. 56 and 85 in answer key for Booklet series - C are wrong. Similarly, according to the petitioner-Surendra Kumar Mishra in writ petition No. 21087 of 2018, the answers to the question Nos. 40, 62 and 91 in answer key for Booklet Series - B, are wrong.

4. Also, according to the petitioners Dhan Devi Mishra and Manish Kumar Sonkar, if their claim were to be accepted and the key answers were to be corrected as per the expert material relied upon by the petitioners, those petitioners would stand higher in merit and would get included in the select list released by the Commission. As on date these two petitioners stand excluded from the select list.

5. Insofar as the petitioner Surendra Kumar Mishra is concerned, his name is included in the select list. However, he claims if the key answers were to be corrected in his case (again according to the expert material relied upon by him), his merit position would improve and he would become entitled to allotment of a college higher in preference disclosed by him.

6. With respect to the dispute that has thus arisen, certain admitted facts need to be recorded first :

(i) on 19.3.2014, the Commission published the advertisement No. 46 advertising numerous posts of Assistant Professor in different subjects, at various privately managed degree colleges inside the State of Uttar Pradesh.

(ii) the applicants had time until 24.4.2014 to fill up the application forms. All petitioners filled the forms.

(iii) written examination was held on 14.2.2015 with respect to the claim made by the petitioner Surendra Kumar Mishra (in the subject Physics) and; on 22.3.2015 with respect to other two petitioners Dhan Devi Mishra and Manish Kumar Sonkar (in the subject Zoology).

(iv) the answer key were first published on the website of the Commission on 21.2.2015 for the subject of Physics and on 28.3.2015 for the subject of Zoology.

(v) upon publication of the original answer key, objections were invited.

(vi) upon receiving objections the Commission referred the disputed answers to two independent committees of subject experts.

(vii) the revised answer key were published by the Commission on 20.8.2015 (for the subject Zoology) and on 21.8.2015 (for the subject Physics).

(viii) thereafter, final result of the written examination were published on 20.7.2016 (for the subject Zoology) and on 28.6.2018 (for the subject Physics).

(ix) interview were held on different dates after dec