The Bench comprising, Justice J N Patel and Justice D D Sinha, took a serious view of the fact that though the writ petition was filed on June 11, 1997 against Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, State of Maharashtra represented by the Chief Secretary and C S Sangitrao, then member secretary of the Board, adjournment was being sought on grounds that the notice ordered to be served to Joshi had not been served.

When the matter came up today, petitioner Kishore Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, submitted that though the appointments were still being investigated by the police, the ones mentioned in the disputed advertisement had already been made.

Patel said ``this is a serious matter. If the governmentcould not justify its action, the High Court will cancel all appointments made on such an advertisement after June 1997.''

The petition contended that being a statutory body, the Board had to obtain the State Government's approval for adopting the unusual procedure of advertising for jobs with a post box number and submitted that the Board was adopting a procedure to avoid filling backlog of posts reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.