SONU KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this judgment, we shall be deciding the aforementioned eight Civil Writ Petitions as common question of law is involved in all these cases.

(2.) The petitioners in CWPs No.1986, 1510 and 8501 of 2020 were the applicants for the Group-C posts (Clerks) as advertised by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (for short "the HSSC") on 20.06.2019 vide advertisement No.5 of 2019 whereas in CWPs No.34593 of 2019 and 1041 & 2277 of 2020 the petitioners had applied for the posts of Junior Engineers in pursuance of advertisement No.10 of 2019 issued by the HSSC on 15.06.2019 and the petitioners in CWPs No.20098 and 16959 of 2019 were the aspirants for the posts of Assistant Professor (College Cadre) as advertised by the Haryana Public Service Commission (for short,"the HPSC") on 08.03.2019 and had applied for the same. In all these cases, the petitioners had applied for the above-mentioned respective posts under the category of Eligible Sports Persons (for short, "ESP").

(3.) Before adverting to the discussion on the merits of the cases in hand, we deem it expedient and appropriate to have a bird's eye-view of the facts, in the backdrop, giving rise to the entire instant litigation. On 30.11.1993, the Government of Haryana had issued certain instructions (here-in-after referred to as "the old instructions") for the issuance of the Sports Gradation Certificates to the outstanding sports persons for the purpose of the reservation of the seats for them in the Technical/Medical Institutions as well as in the State Government services. However, the Government, in supersession of these old instructions, issued a fresh policy (here-in-after referred to as "the new policy") on 25.05.2018 providing the guidelines for issuing the Sports Gradation Certificates to the ESPs for jobs and also for other purposes which has, subsequently, been modified vide the notification dated 15.11.2018 (here-in-after referred to as "the modified new policy"). The core question, which has arisen out of the abovementioned facts and circumstances and now requires to be answered for the purpose of deciding all the CWPs in hand, is as under:-