- (1.) The judgment in the present Letters Patent Appeal shall also dispose of three other connected LPAs bearing No. 97 of 2008, 108 of 2008 and 109 of 2008 since common questions of facts and law are involved, as also these are directed against a common judgment dated 3.12.2007 passed by the learned Single Judge dismissing the writ petitions.
(2.) For the sake of convenience and with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, the facts from LPA No. 96 of 2008 are being taken.
(3.) Briefly, the facts are that the Haryana Public Service Commission (For short "HPSC") issued an advertisement in various newspapers in June-July 1996 to fill up six temporary posts of Assistant Engineers (Civil) (Class II) in the PWD (B&R Branch), Haryana in the pay scale of Rs. 2200-4000/- plus usual allowances as sanctioned by the Haryana Government. The selection, however, could not be made in time and number of posts advertised were increased by issuance of a corrigendum in September 1999 from 6 to 39. The last date of submission of applications was extended upto 30.11.1999 and the date for the purpose of age limit was fixed as 1.8.1999 in stead of 1.8.1996. The appellants-petitioners submitted their applications and were selected as per the result of the selection declared/published on 31.5.2000 (Annexure P.4). A letter dated 31.5.2000 came to be issued by HPSC to the Secretary, Government of Haryana, PWD, B&R, Department recommending the names of the candidates including the petitioners categoriwise in order of merit for appointment to the post of Assistant Engineers(Civil) (Class II) in PWD, B&R Department Haryana (Annexure P4/A). Letters dated 8.8.2000 were issued to the candidates by the respondent-Department to appear before the Director Health Services, Haryana, Chandigarh for their medical examination and letters were also issued for verification of character and antecedents of selected candidates.;