Judgment

CHANDRACHUD, J. :- The petitioner, Shrimati Arati Ray Choudhary, is a permanent employee in the South Eastern Railway - a Government of India undertaking - which runs two Higher Secondary Schools for girls one at Adra and the other at Kharagpur. Broadly stated, the question which we have to decide in this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution is whether the vacancy in the post of the Headmistresss of the Kharagpur School can be treated as being reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate, a question which depends for its decision both on the interpretation and the validity of the Carry forward rule. The petitioner assails that rule and contends that the vacancy is open to all candidates while respondent No. 8, who belongs to Scheduled Caste, contends for a contrary position.

2. In August 1966 a vacancy arose in the post of the Headmistress of the Adra School and was filled up on the footing that it was unreserved. The Headmistress of the Kharagpur school was due to retire with effect from January 1, 1969 and therefore on December 5, 1968 the Railway administration formed a panel of candidates for selection to that post and fixed December 18, 1968 as the date for holding interviews. The names of four Assistant Mistress called for selection were arranged in the panel seniority-wise, the petitioner occupying the top place and respondent No. 8 the third place. The meeting of the 18th was sayed by the Calcutta High Court in a Writ Petition (Civil Rule No. 2117 (W) of 1968) brought by respondent No. 8 for readjustment of her seniority. On December 28, 1968 the petitioner was asked to take over charge of the post and on January 4, 1969 she was promoted to officiate as a Head-mistress, "purely on local stop-gap basis", and on the express condition that the promotion will not confer upon her any right or title to the post.

3. Respondent No. 8 then filed another Writ Petition in the Calcutta High Court (Civil Rule No. 499 (W) of 1969) asking that the notice of December, 5, 1968 be quashed as the vacancy in the post of the Headmistress of the Kharagpur school ought, under the relevant rules, to be treated as being reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate. In the mean while the stay order issued in Writ Petition 2117 of 1968 was vacated by the High Court and therefore on April 15, 1969 the Railway administration issued a fresh notice fixing the interviews of the four candidates on April 29. This attempt also proved abortive as respondent No. 8 obtained in Writ Petition 499 of 1969 an injunction restraining the authorities from holding the interviews.

4. On December 24, 1970 a learned single Judge of the Calcutta High Court allowed Writ Petition 499 of 1969, holding that the post in question must be treated as being reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate and that therefore respondent No. 8 was "alone entitled to appear before the selection Board for her appointment as Headmistress of the said Girls School." Neither the petitioner nor the two other candidates were impleaded to this petition. The Union of India was the first respondent and the Chief Personnel Officer of the S.E. Railway, the second respondent to the petition. These respondents carried an appeal (No. 454 of 1971) from the Judgment of the single Judge but it was dismissed by a Division Bench on September 14, 1971.

5. Respondent No. 8 filed three contempt petitions, one after another, against the Railway administration for their failure to comply with the directions issued by the Calcutta High Court in Writ Petition No. 499 of 1969. In the first of these petitions (Civil Rule No. 4014-W of 1971) a Division Bench of the High Court, by its Judgment of June 7, 1972, asked the Railway administration to comply within a period of three months with the directions issued earlier by the High Court by asking the petitioner to appear before the Selection Board. The learned Judge however made it clear that the Selection Board would be at liberty to consider the suitability o