- (1.) R. B. Misra, J. Heard Sri Anil Tiwari, learned Counsel for the petitioners; Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri V. K. Singh, learned Counsel for Malaria Association, and Sri Raj Kumar/ Miss. Enakshi Sharma, learned Standing Counsels for the State respondents. In the present writ petition the petitioners have prayed for issuance of writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to issue appointment letters to them to the post of Assistant Malaria Officer as they had duly participated in the Combined State Subordinate Services Examination, 1999 conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission and they have been declared successful.
(2.) THE Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (hereinafter in short called as "commission') conducts examinations for recruitment to different cadre of posts including the posts in Upper Subordinate Services and Lower Subordinate Services through Combined State/upper Subordinate Services Examination. THE examination is conducted not for individual post, but for different posts requisitioned by the State Government. THE Combined State/subordinate Services Examination is a time bound examination conducted by Commission, each year. THE aforesaid examination is consisting in three stages. THE first stage is preliminary examination, through which candidates are screened out for the main (written examination) i. e. second stage, which is followed by interview i. e. the third stage. THE candidates declared successful after interview are allotted posts in various departments on the basis of their merits and preferences given by them. According to Para 2 (6) of the Uttar Pradesh Direct Recruitment through Public Service Commission (Preliminary Examination) Rule, 1986 the "preliminary examination" is the screening test to be conducted by the Commission with the purposes of finding out suitable candidate for admission to the main examination or interview; and as per Para-2 (9) of the said Rule, 1986 the "main examination" or interview means the examination or interview as per relevant service Rules and Govt. Orders. Generally the advertisement for preliminary examination is notified in the month of January and the examinations of preliminary and main examination are held in the month of May/ June and October/ November respectively. Final result is declared in the month of May next year. Thus, in order to include maximum number of vacancies in the aforesaid examination, such selection procedure is followed by the 'commission' each year and that is the reason by which the vacancies increase at the time of preliminary examination each year. However, vacancies at the time of preliminary examination are final and no new vacancies are to be added further once preliminary examination is held. If the Commission receives any further vacancy after the preliminary examination, those are to be included in the succeeding year Combined State Examination, as a settled procedure of the 'commission'. In the present case, the advertisement No. A-1/e-1/1999 was issued by the Commission for conducting the Combined State/ Subordinate Services (Preliminary Examination) 1999 and the applications were invited for the purpose. There is no provision in the aforesaid examination to apply for any individual post. The Commission allots the post to the successful candidates in the final merit list according to their merits and the preferences given by them at the time of interview.
(3.) THE post concerned of Assistant Malaria Officer is lower subordinate post, which was brought in the purview of 'commission' vide Govt. Notification No. 679/ka-3-98-13/40/97 dated 27-2-1998. It was clearly stipulated in the para 2 of the above named advertisement - "some of the vacancies of the Combined State/upper Subordinate/ Lower Subordinate services have not been communicated by the Government and if the vacancies are communicated by the Govt. prior to the date of preliminary examination, the selection shall be made through this examination. THE Government vide its letter No. A/mal-AMO/99/1/1222 dated 4-3-1999 requisitioned 57 posts of Assistant Malaria Officer to fill-up through the aforesaid examination prior to the preliminary examination, 1999. THE Commission thereafter received the requisition of 5 different types of post prior to the preliminary examination and all the 5 posts were thus included in this examination after the advertisement of the aforesaid examination. THE Commission provided the detail of the posts and the number of vacancies to each candidate who was declared successful in the preliminary examination. THE aforesaid five posts, which were added to this examination after the advertisement but prior to the preliminary examination, are as follows: (A) Treasury Officer -9 posts. (B) District Panchayat Raj Officer -10 posts. (C) Deputy Jailor -47 posts. (D) THE Assistant Malaria Officer -57 posts. (E) Marketing Inspector.-256 posts. Thus, the total vacancies were increased from 478 to 917 at the time of preliminary examination and the final selection was made for 917 vacancies. According to learned Counsel for the petitioners, similarly in the year 2000 and 2001 in Combined State/subordinate Services Examination, the vacancies were increased after the date of advertisement but prior to the date w of preliminary examination. In the year 2002 the 'commission' has not even advertised a single post at the time of the preliminary, examination. This clearly shows that the advertisement of the posts are not at all required before the main (written) examination because preliminary exam is merely a screening examination to find out the suitable candidates for admission to the main examination. The main examination is the real examination taken as per relevant service rules and Government orders, and before this main examination the posts concern must be advertised to provide equal chances to all the suitable eligible candidates and the same procedure thus was adopted in the aforesaid examination of 1999, where the Commission about each and every vacancy has intimated by registered post to all the suitable candidates, who had passed the screening test including the 57 post of Assistant Malaria Officer.;