perused the documents on record as well as the submissions advanced by the parties. It is clear from Annexure- 4 that the 7th candidate namely, Dhananjay Kumar, who was at Serial No. 3 of the merit list prepared, subsequently, had already opted out of his candidature prior to 29.09.2018 and, therefore, the application of the rule in the case of the present petitioner is wholly uncalled for. The authorities ought to have taken note of his withdrawal while preparation and declaration of the merit list as the petitioner’s name fell which is below the 7th candidate. It is, thus, considered that the declaration of the merit list was in total ignorance of the fact that one of the candidates had already withdrawn his candidature and the next candidate ought to have been automatically offered to the next meritorious candidate which is admittedly the petitioner. It is, thus, directed that the authorities being the respondent no. 3 will take necessary action to review the candidature of the petitioner and since it has not been denied that the petitioner being of the unreserved category is the next meritorious candidate, he should be taken into service under the unreserved category subject to the condition that all other eligibility criteria stands fulfilled. The aforementioned exercise shall be taken into consideration within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt/production of a
