TAPABRATA CHAKRABORTY, J. - (1.) The judgment passed by the learned Tribunal on 10th February, 2016 is under challenge in all the writ petitions and as common questions of law and fact are involved, all the writ petitions have been heard analogously.
(2.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts are that for appointment to the posts in West Bengal Legal Service, the Public Service Commission of West Bengal (hereinafter referred to as PSC) published an advertisement No.07/2013 inviting applications from eligible candidates to fill up 50 vacancies [23- unreserved, 10- schedule caste, 06- schedule tribe, 05- backward class (category -'A'), 03- backward class (category -'B') and 03-physically handicapped (low vision-01 and hearing impaired-02)]. Pursuant to the said advertisement, 606 candidates applied and they were called for the written test which was held in the month of December, 2013. Amongst the said 606 candidates, 92 candidates were selected for personality test which was held in the month of December, 2014. Prior thereto, a full Commission meeting was held in the chamber of the Chairman, PSC on 19th September, 2014, wherein it was, inter alia, decided that excepting West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) etc. Examination and West Bengal Judicial Services Examination, in all cases of recruitment examination qualifying cut-off mark will be fixed at all stages for all categories as in selection cases. In terms of the said resolution, the personality test was conducted and subsequent thereto, a common merit list was published by PSC containing names of 606 candidates. PSC also published a communication in its official website indicating the cut-off mark fixed in respect of the selection process and on the basis of the same, 20 candidates from general category and 3 candidates from schedule tribe category were recommended for appointment vide memorandum dated 16th March, 2015. The State Government partly accepted such recommendation and granted appointment to 13 candidates in general category and 3 candidates in schedule tribe category after conducting police verification and medical examination.
(3.) Challenging the said selection process candidates, namely, Snehashis Mondal (OA-437/2015); Abdul Hoque (OA-429/2015); Sangita Dutta (OA-807/2015); Chanchal Sen (OA-412/2015); Amrita Sanyal (OA-413/2015; Moumita Mitra (OA-414/2015); Sekhar Das (OA-415/2015); Ashis Kr. Saha (OA-416/2015); Munmun Sahu (OA- 436/2015) and Rathin Biswas (OA-470/2015) [he had prayed for preparation of a separate panel for the post of schedule caste category candidates amongst other reliefs] had prayed for recasting the panel prepared by the Commission on the basis of the marks obtained by them in their written and personality test without taking into account the cut-off mark for the personality test which was subsequently applied by the PSC. The candidates, namely, Joy Banerjee (OA-1128/2015); Soumyadip Chakraborty (OA-1182/2015); Suprasanna Roy (OA-1183/2015) including the applicant Banani Das (OA-1274/2015) have prayed for necessary directions on the law department for allowing them to join the service in view of their selection as intimated by the PSC, WB. The said applications were clubbed together and heard analogously by the learned Tribunal and the judgment was delivered on 10th February, 2016 which is under challenge in the present writ petitions.;