JUDGMENT :

Ashwani Kumar Mishra, J.

1. Since the controversy raised in all the above mentioned writ petitions are identical they have been heard together and are being disposed off finally vide this judgment. Writ Appeal No. 5913 of 2021 (Vikas Tiwari and Others vs. State of U.P. and Others) is treated as the lead case.

2. Petitioners in this bunch of writ petitions are aggrieved by the decision of Examination Controller, U.P. Subordinate Services Selection Commission, Lucknow (hereinafter referred to as 'the Commission') dated 24.3.2021, cancelling the recruitment exercise undertaken by the Commission vide advertisement No. 2 of 2018 for combined examination to the posts of Gram Panchayat Adhikari, Gram Vikas Adhikari (Samaj Kalyan) and Samaj Kalayan Supervisor, for which examination was held on 22nd and 23rd December, 2018. Prayer consequently has been made to quash the decision taken on 24.3.2021 and command the respondents to proceed with petitioners' document verification and issue orders of appointment to them, as they have already been shortlisted, for appointment to the advertised posts.

3. The Commission has published advertisement No. 2 of 2018 inviting applications for appointment to 1527 permanent posts of Gram Panchayat Adhikari, 362 temporary posts of Gram Vikas Adhikari (Samaj Kalyan) and 64 permanent posts of Samaj Kalyan Supervisor. Registration pursuant to above advertisement was to commence online on 30.6.2018 and deposit of online fee was to start on 1.6.2018. Last date for registration was 25.6.2018; whereas last date for deposit of online fee was 27.6.2018. The last date for submission of application was 29.6.2018. Provision for Vertical and Horizontal reservation; specification of age of candidate and their qualification etc. were specified in the advertisement. Clause 11 of the advertisement provided that the basis of selection in the recruitment is written examination. Clause 12 specified the scheme of examination and its syllabus. The examination itself was to be of objective type with only one paper of 300 marks. This paper was to be in three parts, namely Hindi Knowledge and Writing Ability; Mental Aptitude; and General Knowledge, consisting of 50 questions each in all three parts. Each question carried 2 marks, totalling 300 marks. All the questions had to be attempted in 2 hours. Advertisement also provided for negative marks to be awarded against a wrong answer.

4. The Commission notified on 17.10.2018 that the examination pursuant to advertisement in question would be conducted in two shifts at 1572 centres in 16 districts of the State on 22nd and 23rd December, 2018 between 10-12 a.m. and 03-05 p.m. respectively.

5. It is admitted to the parties that the task of conducting written examination was outsourced to M/s. Tata Consultancy Services (hereinafter referred to as 'Agency') by the Commission. According to petitioners full proof measures were taken to maintain fairness, transparency and confidentiality in the conduct of examination and the candidates were allowed entry in the examination centre only after their biometric identification and the examination was also conducted under surveillance of CCTV cameras.

6. The examination was of objective type and each question contained four answers, one of which was correct. The candidates were required to darken the circle against the correct answer in the OMR Sheet. As per the examination scheme each candidate was provided with three copies of OMR sheets. The darkening of correct answer was required on the first OMR Sheet and its impressions got copied on the remaining two OMR Sheets. The first OMR Sheet was to be utilised for evaluating the score of candidate while the second copy was to be kept in a safe custody of Treasury. The candidate could retain the third copy with himself.

7. Certain allegations appear to have surfaced in several newspa