SASWATI DAS Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ appeals are preferred on behalf of the appellants challenging the judgment and order dtd. 21/8/2023 passed by the learned Single Judge in WP(C) No.3341/2019 (Shalini Khan -Vs- State of Assam and Ors.) and WP(C) No.3344/2019 (Girbani Deka -Vs- State of Assam and Ors.), whereby the learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petitions filed on behalf of the appellants Shalini Khan (appellant in Writ Appeal No.361/2023) and Girbani Deka (appellant in Writ Appeal No.364/2023) and has concluded that as the appellants Shalini Khan and Girbani Deka as well as the appellants Saswati Das (appellant in Writ Appeal No. 363/2023); Vidisha Bodo and Anupam Deka (appellants in Writ Appeal No.371/2023) and Manish Baruah (appellant in Writ Appeal No. 373/2023) did not qualify in their Preliminary Examination of the Combined Competitive Examination, 2018 (hereinafter to be referred as "CCE, 2018"), no direction can be given to the State Government to consider their cases for appointment to the Civil Services and Civil Posts under the State Government.

(2.) The undisputed brief facts of the case are that the respondent Assam Public Service Commission (hereinafter to be referred as "APSC") had issued an Advertisement No. 9/2018 dtd. 17/5/2018 inviting applications from the eligible candidates to appear in the Preliminary Examination of the CCE, 2018 for screening them for the Main Examination for recruitment to the services/posts to be held for filling up of 165 number of vacancies for the posts/services in different categories, which has been specified in the advertisement itself. The last date for submission of the application forms for Preliminary Examination was fixed as 18/6/2018. Thereafter, taking into consideration the request made by the Government, the APSC had issued an Addendum on 26/6/2018 and notified another 96 vacancies in the posts/services of 2(two) categories and the last date for submission of the application from the interested candidates for their appearance in the Preliminary Examination has also been extended as such. In all, the APSC has invited applications from the interested and eligible candidates for their appearance in the Preliminary Examination for filling up of 261 vacancies of different categories of services/posts.

(3.) In the above-referred Advertisement and Addendum, it is clarified that the posts were reserved for the reserved category candidates as per the Rules in vogue in the State of Assam. In the Advertisement, it is mentioned that the Combined Competitive Exam-ination consists of 2(two) successive stages, i.e. the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination (Written and Interview). The other ancillary aspects, such as pay scale; eligibility criteria; minimum and upper age, etc., along with the disclosure of the centres where the Combined Competitive Examination is to be conducted has been mentioned. In the said Advertisement, it is also clarified that the Preliminary Examination shall be meant to serve as a screening test only and the marks obtained by a candidate in the Preliminary Examination will not be counted for determining the final order of merit. The other details mentioned in the Advertisement have already been noted by the learned Single Judge in the impugned judgment and there is no dispute about the same. Therefore, we refrain ourselves from looking into the admitted factual aspects which may not be of much relevance in deciding the controversy before this Court.