Judgment

WANCHOO, J.: This petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution is a sequel to the judgment of this Court in T. Devadasan v. Union of India, AIR 1964 SC 179. The petitioner was Assistant in Grade IV of the Central Secretariat Service. The next post which the petitioner could expect to get was of Section Officer (Assistant Superintendent). Recruitment to the post of Section Officer is made in the following manner :--

(i) 50 per cent by direct recruitment from those who obtain lower ranks in the Indian Administrative Service, etc., examinations.

(ii) 25 per cent by promotion from Grade IV on the basis of a departmental examination held at intervals by the Union Public Service Commission, and

(iii) 25 per cent by promotion from Grade IV on the basis of seniority cum-fitness. In February 1960 the Union Public Service Commission issued a notification to the effect that a limited competitive examination for promotion to the post of Section Officers would be held in June 1960. The notification further stated that reservation of 12 1/2 per cent of the available vacancies would be made for members of scheduled castes and 5 per cent for the members of scheduled tribes. The number of vacancies to be filled was to be announced later. The petitioner sat for this examination and he is said to have secured the 37th position in order of merit. Later, a press communiqué was issued by the Union Public Service Commission in which it was stated that the number of vacancies expected to be filled was 48 out of which 32 were reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and 16 were unreserved. Eventually, however, the Union Public Service Commission recommended 45 names for appointment, 16 of which were unreserved and 29 were reserved against vacancies for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Finally, however, the Government made only 43 appointments, 15 in the unreserved quota and 28 in the reserved quota. This heavy reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was made on the basis of the "carry forward" rule which was put into force from 1955.

2. According to the resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs dated September 13, 1950 reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was fixed at 12 1/2 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively without anything like the "carry forward" rule. In 1952, however, supplementary instructions were issued in this connection in the following terms : -

"5 (3). If a sufficient number of candidates of the communities for whom the reservations are made, who are eligible for appointment to the posts in question and are considered by the recruiting authorities as suitable in all respects for appointment to the reserved quota of vacancies, are not available, the vacancies that remain unfilled will be treated as unreserved and filled by the best available candidates; but a corresponding number of vacancies will be reserved in the following year for the communities whose vacancies are thus filled up in addition to such number as would originally be reserved for them under the orders contained in the Resolution.

"5(4). If suitably qualified candidates of the communities for whom the reservations have been made are again not available to fill the vacancies carried forward from the previous year under cl. (3) above, the vacancies not filled by them will be treated as unreserved and the reservations made in those vacancies will lapse."

As a result of these instruction; reserved vacancies for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes which could not be filled in one examination would be carried forward to the next examination. But if sufficient number of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates were not available to fill the vacancies carried forward plus vacancies of the next year the vacancies were to be treated as unreserved and the reservation made in those vacancies would lapse. Thus according to 1952 instructions the carry forward was only for two years and thereafter there was no carry forward. In 195