Hon’ble Irshad Ali, J.—Heard Sri Jaideep Mathur, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Amrendra Nath Tripathi, Sri Alok Kumar Mishra, Sri Onkar Singh Kushwaha, Sri Bahar Ali, Sri Ram Kumar Singh, Sri Vijay Kumar Asthana, Sri Dharmendra Kumar Maurya, Sri Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Sri Onkar Pandey, Sri Alok Kumar Srivastava, Sri Neeraj Kumar Mishra, Sri Vivek Tripathi, Sri Ramesh Kumar Srivastava, Sri Sharad Nandan Ojha, Sri Ajey Singh and Sri Vinay Misra, learned counsel for the petitioners. Learned Advocate General on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 and 2. Sri Anil Tiwari, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Apurva Tiwari, learned Advocate and Sri S.K. Kalia, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Durga Prasad Shukla, learned counsel for the respondents as well as Sri Vindhyawasini Kumar, learned counsel on behalf of respondent Nos. 3 and 4.

2. The controversy involved in this bunch of writ petitions is that whether permission accorded to the candidates to apply for the post of Assistant Teacher by providing first preference in the counselling from the district, where ther