Judgment

VENKATARAMIAH, J.:- The Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation) and some of its officers have filed this appeal by special leave against the judgment and Order dated 20-12-1982 passed in Appeal No. 709 of 1982 on the file of the High Court of Bombay affirming the judgment dated 23-11-1982 of the learned single Judge in Writ Petition No. 579 of 1981 in which the learned single Judge had issued a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the Corporation to implement its Resolution No. 567 dated 12-9-1975 directing reservation of certain vacancies while making promotions from a lower cadre to a higher cadre for the employees of the Corporation belonging to certain sections of backward classes with effect from 23-5-1974.

2. The Government of Maharashtra passed a resolution on 23-5-1974 providing for reservation for certain sections of backward classes at the stage of promotion in the services under the State. Under that resolution the Government provided that in Class I, Class II and Class III posts in which the element of direct recruitment did not exceed 50 per cent where promotion was to be made on the basis of seniority subject to fitness, 13 per cent of vacancies should be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Castes converts into Budhism, 7 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes including those living outside the specified areas and 4 percent for Denotified Tribes and Nomadic Tribes. In order to implement the above scheme the Government directed the maintenance of a roster of 50 vacancies in which Sl. Nos. 1, 9, 17, 25, 33, 41 and 49 were to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Castes converts into Budhism, Sl. Nos. 2, 16 and 31 were to be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes including those living outside the specified areas and Sl. Nos. 3 and 28 were to be reserved for Denotified Tribes and Nomadic Tribes. The State Governments resolution was not applicable to the services under the Corporation on its own force. The Corporation, therefore, passed the Resolution bearing No. 567 dated 12-9-1975 which read as follows :

"That in partial modification of the orders passed under the Corporation Resolution No. 364 dated the 11th August, 1966 sanction be given to the policy, regarding reservation of posts for backward community as adopted by the Government of Maharashtra and explained in the letter, being adopted by the Corporation and reservation of posts being made in the matter of direct recruitment except those filled in by the Corporation and other individual specified posts of officers whose number in any category is not more than three as well as in promotion posts, as proposed and the Commissioner be authorised to inform the Government accordingly."

(Emphasis added)

3. Although the above resolution was passed on 12-9-1975 it was not brought into force immediately as it is alleged that the Corporation had to collect statistics to ascertain the number of vacancies that were available at the promotional stage since 23-5-1974. The Corporation passed another resolution being Resolution No. 1652 on 4-3-1977 which read as follows:

"That in modification of the orders passed under the Corporation Resolution No. 567 dated the 12th September, 1975, sanction be given to the policy regarding reservation of posts for Backward Classes in the matter of direct recruitment and at the stage of promotion, as adopted by the Government of Maharashtra under their Resolutions, General Administration Department No. BCC 1072-ECR/J dated the 23rd May, 1974..........................so far as it relates to reservation of the posts in the matter of promotion for certain sections of the Backward classes being given from the date of passing of Government Resolution dated the 23rd May, 1974 referred to above, as proposed; ........................"

4. Pursuant to the said resolution Respondent No. 1 Mrs. Kalpana Sadhu Kamble, who belonged to one of the backward classes, was promoted from