JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Shri Abhishek Khare, Ms. Aahuti Agarwal, Shri Virendra Kumar Dubey, Shri Deepak Singh, Shri P.K. Mishra, Advocates as learned counsel for their respective petitioners and Shri Ran Vijay Singh, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for U.P. Basic Education Board and perused the record.

2. The present bunch of writ petitions engaging the attention of this Court has been filed by petitioners, whose candidature for the post of Assistant Teachers in primary school in pursuance of the advertisement issued by the State of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2019 were either not found proper due to inaccuracy and/or discrepancy between the online application and the actual status of the said candidate, or, even if the candidature of these petitioners were considered and these petitioner’s found their way to the final selection list, however subsequently, the department, finding disparity in the declaration made in the online application and the actual status of the said candidate, their recruitment were cancelled and consequent recovery were directed by the respondent.

3. Both the sides have relied on various judgments/orders of this court as well as the Hon’ble Apex Court to buttress their point of submission and drive home their own respective cases and each of them have tried to convey that the present case is a covered matter and as such the same can be finally decided.

4. The common and germane background to the deciding of the issues involved in these writ petitions lie in a narrow compass.

5. The state of Uttar Pradesh issued a notification to fill up 69000 posts of Assistant Teachers in Primary Schools in various districts of the state, pursuant to which an Assistant Teacher Recruitment Examination, 2019 was conducted by the Examination Regulatory Authority, Prayagraj. As per the recruitment process, candidates were to apply online, who were allotted registration number and assigned roll number for appearing in the examination, for which the results were declared on 12.05.2020. After declaration of result, the U.P. Basic Shiksha Parishad invited online applications from successful candidates for counselling and appointment.

6. Pertinently, the aforesaid ambitious recruitment scheme of the state of Uttar Pradesh was mired with litigations having been filed before this Court as well as the Hon’ble Supreme Court, which led to issuance of Government order dated of 4th December, 2020 in clarification and another letter dated 05.03.2021 issued by the Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh, relating to the appointment of assistant Teachers.

7. A harmonious reading of both the Government orders would lead one to an impeccable conclusion that both these orders have been issued with a purpose, which inter-alia state that no candidate should be permitted to rectify any mistake committed by him/her while filing up online application form so as to have an impact on the smooth conducting of the selection process and to avoid any alteration or change in the inter se merit of the candidates which would eventually lead to a change in the final merit/select list.

8. Although various orders and judgments of this Court have been cited by both the parties, however this Court finds that apparently there are two judgments of the Hon’ble Apex Court, which holds the ground as on today. The communication dated 05.02.2021 was a subject matter of interpretation before the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Jyoti Yadav & Anr. V/s The State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. (Writ Petition No. 322 of 2021) decided along with 8 other writ petitions, wherein the Hon’ble Court vide its order dated 8th of April, 2021 held as follows:

“14. Wherever the mistakes committed by the candidates purportedly gave additional marks or weightage greater than what they actually deserved, according to the Communication dated 05.03.2021, their candidature would stand rejected. However, wherever mistakes committed by the candidates actually put them at a disadvantag