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In short, the facts and events leading to filing of these Special Leave Petitions are :-

The Railway Board issued Employment Notification No. 1 of 1995 dated 7.9.1995 inviting applications for 330 posts of Khalasis (Group-D) reserving 19% of posts for Scheduled Castes, 1% for Scheduled Tribes and 27% for OBCs besides 3% for Physically Handicapped and 20% for Ex-Servicemen. In response to the Notification, 58,675 applications were received, out of them 32,563 candidates were found eligible and called for interview. The Railway Board by its letter dated 17.5.1996 communicated its decision to prepare a panel for 917 vacancies on the ground of increase of vacancies from 330 to 917. The selection of candidates was to be made on viva voce test only. The candidates were interviewed from July 1996 to February 1997 by different committees. The composition of the committees was challenged in O.A. No. 28/1997 before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chennai Bench. The Tribunal by its order dated 17.9.1997 struck down the Railway Boards instructions on the basis of which committees were constituted for interview. Thereafter the Railway board issued fresh instructions on 29.4.1998 for constituting committees as per para 179 of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual (I.R.E.M.). The second round of interviews were conducted afresh from 26.06.1998 to 28.09.1998 for 75 days by different committees. Out of 32,563 candidates, only 25,271 candidates appeared for the interview. Another O.A. No. 543/1998 was filed seeking direction that the course completed Act Apprentices should be given preference but the same was dismissed on 17.9.1998.

The Tribunal quashed the panel of selected candidates giving the reasons that number of vacancies originally notified were 330 but the panel of selected candidates had been drawn for 917 without earlier notifying the increase in vacancies; only 18 Physically Handicapped candidates had been selected instead of 27 candidates on the basis of 3% reservation for the entire 917 posts; instead of finding the selection zone, applications of SC/STs were received on inter-State basis and that the marking pattern in the selection in the absence of guidelines to 80% marks had led to wide variations. The Tribunal, however, noticed that allegations of mala fide and bias had not been established.

On the other hand, Mr. A.L. Somayaji, learned Senior Counsel for petitioners in SLP No. 2377/2001, made submissions supporting the order of the High Court except to the extent of the observation made in para 34 taking note of revised assessment of vacancies coming to only 382 in Group `D for the period upto 2002, and confining appointment to the available vacancies only. Although originally the notification was issued to fill up 330 vacancies, later they were increased to 917 after getting the approval of the Railway Board for additional 587 vacancies; since as many as 58,675 applications were received, out of them 32,563 candidates were called for interview and 25,271 candidates actually attended interview including large number of local candidates, no prejudice was caused by not inviting applications for additional vacancies; as observed by the High court, selected candidates were made to run from pillar to post for one reason or the other and they were asked to appear twice for the interview in pursuance of the notification No. 1/95 and that after a long drawn process the panel of selected candidates was prepared; the Tribunal committed a serious error in quashing the panel of selected candidates in its entirety when the selected candidates were not impleaded in the O.As. On this short ground alone, the High Court ought to have granted relief to the successful candidates fully covering all the 917 candidates. The learned Senior Counsel also submitted that no mala fides or arbitrariness was found in the procedure of selection of candidates. He urged that there was no justification to reduce the vacancies to be filed from 917 to 382, having prepared and published a panel of 917 selected candidates. He added that after the High Court passed the order, some candidates have been appointed; it may not be appropriate to upset the selection of candidates at this stage.

Hence the contentions raised in SLP No. 2377/2001 are untenable.
Similarly the contention that the vacancies to be filled up could not be increased to 917 from 330 originally notified without there being subsequent notification is untenable in view of the changed situation as explained above. No fault can be found with the direction of the High Court to issue appointments only to available vacancies on merit out of the candidates included in the panel of selected candidates following rules of reservation and that too reserving 3% seats to Physically Handicapped instead of 2%. 382 vacancies would be available upto March 2002 possibly as of now all the 382 candidates may not be given appointment; the appointments may be given upto 330 or less. Further, the purpose of issuing notification and giving due publicity is to provide opportunity to as many eligible candidates as possible. The employment notification No. 1/1995 was issued on 7.9.1995 and the decision was taken to increase the posts on 17.5.1996, the time gap was hardly 8 months; as many as 58,675 made applications and 32,563 were called for interview. It was quite probable that all candidates eligible and interested including large number of local candidates, applied for the posts. The time gap of about 8 months between the original notification and the decision to increase posts not being much, it cannot be said that many of the eligible candidates were deprived of applying for the posts looking to the requirements of eligibility. As already stated above, in the changed situation only 382 posts are to be filed up upto March, 2002. The selected candidates are to be appointed on the basis of merit following rules of reservation applicable to different categories. The process of selection was long-drawn and the candidates were made to appear for interview twice. The candidates and their families have been waiting for long time from 1995 with great hope of getting jobs. Enormous money and man hours have been spent in completing the process of selection in preparing the panel of selected candidates. In this view there was no justification for the Tribunal to quash the entire panel of selected candidates.