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3) Insofar as PCS Executive Branch and Allied Services Branch are concerned, a large number of writ petitions were filed by almost all the officers whose services were terminated; be it direct recruits or nominated officers. The matter was referred to the Full Bench, having regard to the importance of the question of law involved. The Full Bench presided by the then Chief Justice of the High Court and two senior most Judges, after hearing these petitions at length, decided those writ petitions by judgment dated July 07, 2003, which is reported as Amarbir Singh & Ors. v. State of Punjab & Ors., 2003 (5) SLR 398. By means of this judgment, the Full Bench dismissed all the writ petitions, thereby confirming the action of the State Government terminating the services of all the officers of PCS Executive Branch and Allied Services Branch as well as the judicial officers. As per the High Court, the decision of the Government to terminate the services was because of the reason that the entire selection process in respect of PCS Executive Branch and Allied Services Branch was so tainted and vitiated, the Government was left with no alternative but to declare the entire selection as null and void. The case set up by the State of Punjab was that during his tenure as Chairman of PSC from September 1996 to March 26, 2002, Mr. Sidhu completely usurped the powers of the Commission unto himself, to the exclusion of all other members, and manipulated the system for ensuring the selection of those who had paid money or came with the recommendations. It had relied upon the statements of Mr. Jagman Singh, a confident and tout of Mr. Sidhu (who had become approver in the criminal case), who disclosed the modus operandi adopted by Mr. Sidhu. It was pointed out that during the investigation it was revealed that question papers and answer scripts were smuggled out of the headquarters of the PSC. At times, blank answer sheets were given to the prospective candidates and special instructions were given to the examiners towards higher marks to favoured candidates and at the same time less marks were awarded to more meritorious candidates. By accepting the bribes to favour such persons, Mr. Sidhu had amassed assets worth Rs. 22 crores. It was averred that the entire selection process was completely vitiated and it was not possible to separate the meritorious candidates from others and, therefore, a decision was taken to terminate all the appointments.