JUDGMENT

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. :— Special leave granted.

2. The petitioner belongs to the Scheduled Castes. He joined the Delhi Police as a Constable on May 18, 1979. He became a Graduate in 1981. On October 10, 1981, the Staff Selection Committee invited applications for filling up vacancies of posts of Sub-Inspectors of Police on the basis of a competitive examination. There were altogether 170 vacancies. The break up of the vacancies, General and Reserved, Departmental and Non-departmental, as admitted by the respondents was as follows:-

"Non-departmental Departmental Total

i) General 98 12 110

ii) Scheduled Caste 22 3 25

iii) Scheduled Tribe (including 5 C.F.) 16 2 18

iv) Ex-servicemen 17 - 17

153 17 170"

The petitioner who appeared at the competitive examination was selected for appointment against one of the three vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes from Departmental candidates. He was, however, not appointed on the ground that under the Rules as interpreted by the Delhi High Court in Raj Kumar Singh v. Union of India, there could be no further reservation for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes in the quota available to departmental candidates. A writ petition filed