- (1.)In this group of three petitions, the petitioners have challenged the action of the respondent No.2-District Panchayat Service Selection Committee in deleting the name of the petitioners from the Select List and including the names of the candidates having educational qualification other than what is prescribed in para 3.1 of the advertisement which requires a candidate to possess either two or three years Diploma in Agriculture or Bachelor degree in Rural Studies.
(2.)As the facts in all these three petitions are similar, the same were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common order. For the sake of convenience, facts are taken from Special Civil Application No. 12008 of 2017 treating it as a lead matter. 2.1 The petitioners are having the qualification of Bachelor in Rural Studies [for short 'BRS'] from the recognized university.
2.2 The respondent No.2-District Panchayat Selection Committee issued advertisement inviting application for the post of Gram Sevak in November 2016. The advertisement prescribed the requisite qualification to be Diploma in Agriculture of either two or three years or Bachelor in Rural Studies.

2.3 The petitioners preferred online application pursuant to the said advertisement and petitioners thereafter appeared and cleared the written test and name of the petitioners appeared in the provisional list published by the respondent No.2.

2.4 It is the case of the petitioners that when the petitioners were called for the verification of documents, they were conveyed that the candidates having prescribed qualification as per Clause 3 of the advertisement were only the eligible candidates. However, when the select list was prepared by the respondent No.2, the names of the petitioners did not appear in the Select List but names of some other candidates who were not having the prescribed qualification of either two year or three year Diploma in Agriculture or BRS were included in the Select List. The petitioners, therefore, preferred these petitions challenging the action of the respondent No.2.

(3.)After issuance of the notice by this Court, the petitioners sought amendment to join respondent Nos. 3 and 4 who have been appointed on the post of Gram Sevak possessing the Degree of BSc [Agriculture] which according to the petitioners, is not a valid degree as per the Recruitment Rules and the advertisement issued. By order dtd. 7/2/2020, the draft amendment was granted joining the respondent Nos. 3 and 4 in the petitions.