IMPORTANT POINT
Isolated and separate posts can exist within a cadre. In case there is only one such post, the same could not be set apart for a reserved candidate.

JUDGMENT

Altamas Kabir, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. The respondent No.1, Shri K. Govindappa was appointed as a Lecturer in History in an aided private college owned and managed by the Vinayaka Rural Education Society, the respondent No.2 herein, with effect from 10th July, 1994. The said college, which was situated at Hegalavadi, Gubbi Taluk, Tumkur District, applied for approval of the appointment of the respondent No.1, but such prayer was refused by the Government of Karnataka on the ground that the appointment had been made in violation of the Roster Policy and that he had been appointed in a post which was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate. A review petition was filed by the respondent No.1 before the Government contending that since there was only a single post of Lecturer in History in the college, the reservation policy would not apply to the said post in which the respondent No.1 had been appointed. As the claim of the respondent No.1 was rejected by the Government, he filed a Writ Petition before the Karnataka High Court praying for quashing of the orders passed by the Government and for a direction upon the concerned authorities to approve his appointment with effect from 21st July, 1994, from which date he had joined his duties.

Contesting the claim of the respondent No.1 the appellants contended before the Writ Court that even though the Management was running only one college, it had different disciplines for which there were several Lecturers. It was contended that the college had to maintain the Roster for the purpose of making appointments after taking into consideration the entire cadre of Lecturers, irrespective of subjects. It was also contended that in the college in question there were six posts of Lecturers and hence, the post of Lecturer in History could not be considered as a single post.

3. The submissions made on behalf of the appellants was rejected by the learned Single Judge upon holding that since the post of Lecturer in History was a single post, the reservation policy would not apply to the appointment made to the said post. The learned Single Judge quashed the orders passed by the Government upon holding that the appointment of the respondent No.1 was just and legal and directed the appellants to give approval to his appointment.

4. The matter was taken up to the Division Bench of the High Court by the State of Karnataka and its officers, who are also the appellants in these proceedings. While considering the matter, the Division Bench posed the following two questions which it considered relevant for the purpose of deciding the appeal, namely :-

“(1) Whether the post of lecturer in History to which the writ petitioner was appointed was a single post; and

(2) If the said post was a single post whether the fourth respondent Management was bound to reserve the post for a member of the scheduled caste as contended by respondent No.1 to 3 in the writ petition.”

5. The Division Bench confirmed the views expressed by the learned Single Judge and relying on the decision of this Court in the case of Dr. Chakradhar Paswan vs. State of Bihar,1 [(1988) 2 SCC 214] and the Full Bench decision of the Karnataka High Court in Dr. Rajkumar vs. Gulbarga University,2 [ILR 1990 Karnataka 2125], held that the decision of the learned Single Judge did not require any interference.

6. The State of Karnataka and its authorities are in appeal against the decision of the Karnataka High Court in Writ Appeal No. 3125 of 2005 dated 27th January, 2006.

7. On behalf of the appellant, State of Karnataka, Mr. Sanjay Hegde, learned advocate, submitted that both the learned Single Judge and the Division Bench of the High Court erroneously applied the ratio of the decision in Chakradhar Paswan’s case (supra) upon holding that each discipline in the college constituted a separate cadre within a service in which Lecturers were appointed and the isolated posts could not be taken together for applying the roster by rotation for