Faizan Uddin, J. - (1.) This Civil Appeal has been directed against the order passed by one Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal) in O.A. No. 322/1995 dismissing the appellants application at the admission stage challenging the selection process of various posts in pursuance of an advertisement by the Staff Selection Commission published in Employment News of 10-16th July, 1993 and the select list prepared and published in pursuance thereto, while Civil Appeal No. 5112/1995 has been preferred by the appellants of the said appeal against the order dated 7th March, 1995 passed by the aforesaid Tribunal in O.A. No. 438/1995 dismissing the application at the admission stage challenging the said selection process and the select list as aforesaid. In the writ petitions also referred to above filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the same selection process and select list has been challenged by the petitioners of the said writ petitions.
(2.) On the recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission the Government of India (Department of Personnel and Administration Reforms) passed a resolution on November 4, 1975 whereby a "Subordinate Service commission" was constituted for the purposes of recruitment to Non-Technical Class III posts in the departments of the Government of India and in the subordinate offices. In the aforesaid Government resolution, the functions of the Subordinate Services Commission constituted by the Government are stated in para 3 thereof, the relevant part of which reads as under:- "The Subordinate Services Commission will make recruitment to non-technical Class III posts in the departments of the Govt. of India and in the subordinate offices except those posts for which recruitment is made by the Railway Service Commission Staff in the offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Accountants General and industrial establishments. The Commission will among other things conduct terminations wherever requirement for recruitment to the posts within their purview and for ensuring that as far as possible the actual recruitment is made on a zonal basis so as to enable candidates from different regions to be absorbed in the vacancies arising within the respective regions, the examinations would be held as far as possible on different centres and successful candidates posted, to the extent possible to their home states/regions." The said subordinate Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as Commission) published an advertisement on 10-16th July, 1993 in the Employment News inviting applications for the selection of candidates to the posts of (1) Preventive Officers, (II) Examiner; (III) Inspector of Central Excise, (IV) Inspector of Income-tax, (V) Assistant Enforcement Officers in the Directorate of Enforcement and (VI) Gr. II of Delhi Administration Subordinate Services. The number of vacancies was, however, not stated as the firm number of vacancies had not been determined and the reservation of SC/ST, Ex/servicemen and the physically handicapped persons was to be taken into account as per position reported in each department for each category of posts.
(3.) According to the said advertisement the recruitment was to be made zonewise on the basis of separate merit list drawn for each zone in respect of candidates who appeared at the centres within the same zone. The relevant portion of the said advertisement which relates to the zone-wise process of selection of candidates for the said posts as stated in paragraph No. 16 of the advertisement for ready reference is reproduced hereunder:- "16. Selection of candidates (a) After the examination, the Commission will drawn up a separate list in different categories of posts in respect of each of the zone mentioned in column 2 of the Table in para 13 above, in the order of merit as disclosed by the aggregate marks (written test and personality test) finally awarded to each candidate at the examination, and in that order so many candidates as are found by the Commission to be qualified in the examination shall be recommended for appointment upto the number of unreserved vacancies in each of the zones separately. However, in case no vacancy is available in a particular zone that zone would be clubbed with one of the contiguous zones at the discretion of the Commission and a common order of merit list for both the zones may be prepared. Similarly, where a particular office caters to the requirements of more than one zone, candidates competing at centres located in all such zones will be eligible to be considered for appointment in that office and for his purpose, a common order of merit list for all such zones would be prepared. (b) The candidates for Delhi Administration Grade II Subordinate service will be selected from Delhi Zone in the manner mentioned in sub-para (a) above. ;