- (1.) The special appeal has arisen from a judgment and order of the learned Single Judge dated 30 April 2015 dismissing a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. The challenge in the writ petition which was filed by the appellant was to a selection which was made in pursuance of an advertisement dated 6 January 2005 to the post of Constable in the State Police. Besides challenging the selection, the appellant sought a direction to 'compare and re-examine the copy of the petitioner with other selected OBC candidates'. The appellant also sought a mandamus seeking his appointment as a Constable on the basis of marks obtained in the written examination, physical test and the interview. After the selection had taken place, a batch of unsuccessful candidates filed writ proceedings before this Court at Lucknow in Harendra Singh vs. State of U.P. and others [Writ Petition No.2809 (S/S) of 2005]. The writ petition was dismissed on 23 August 2005. In the course of the proceedings, the Court considered selections which took place in diverse districts in the State including the district of Allahabad to which the present special appeal pertains. The learned Single Judge held that there was no arbitrariness or malpractices in the selection process. The records of all the fifteen districts were summoned and a finding was arrived at that the rules of reservation have been duly followed. The observations of the learned Single Judge in that regard are as follows: "In order to ascertain as to whether the same procedure has been followed in the entire selection in all the 15 districts or not the record of all the 15 districts have been summoned and I have found that the result of the selection has been prepared in accordance with the prescribed procedure. The Rules of Reservation have been followed in accordance with the settled law. The number of reserved category candidates has increased because most of the reserved category candidates have occupied merit seats after securing cut off marks required for qualifying in the merit list."
(2.) Subsequent to the decision of the learned Single Judge in Harendra Singh's case, the State Government issued a Government Order dated 8 November 2007 cancelling the appointments of Constables and constituted a High Power Committee. As a result, on 18 September 2007 and 30 September 2007, the appointments of 18700 Constables were cancelled. A batch of writ petitions were then filed challenging the Government Orders.
(3.) In Pawan Kumar Singh vs. State of U.P. and others (Writ Petition No.45645 of 2007), the learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition and the Government Orders cancelling the recruitment and consequential orders terminating the appointments of selected candidates were quashed. A special appeal against the judgment of the learned Single Judge [State of U.P. through Principal Secretary (Home) Vs. Pawan Kumar Singh (Special Appeal No.244 of 2009)] was dismissed by a Division Bench on 4 March 2009. The State Government contested the matter before the Supreme Court. During the pendency of the special leave petition in pursuance of an order dated 25 May 2009, the State Government issued a Government Order dated 26 May 2009 allowing all the Constables to rejoin on a provisional basis. The special leave petition was withdrawn by the State Government. In consequence, the judgement in Pawan Kumar Singh's case attained finality and the cancellation of the selection process stood quashed.;