JUDGMENT

A.K. SIKRI, J.

1. In the present Special Leave Petition, the petitioner challenges the impugned judgment and final order dated 12.3.2012 passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh in Writ Appeal No. 101/2012 whereby the High Court has summarily dismissed the Writ Appeal of the Petitioner.

2. The core issue involved in the present petition is regarding inclusion of reserved category candidates in the unreserved category candidates list at the preliminary stage.

3. This issue revolves around Rule 3(i) of the State Service Examination Rules and the outcome depends on the interpretation and working of this Rule. Minimal but necessary facts which require mention are given below:-

The Respondent No. 2 namely Chhattisgarh Public Service Commissioner issued an advertisement dated 3.9.2008 inviting applications for filling up various posts in the State Administration. The selection procedure consisted of three stages namely Preliminary Examination, followed by Main Examination, and thereafter Interview. Petitioner belongs to the general category.

4. Preliminary examination of the candidates were held on 01.02.2009. Since further process was to be governed by Rule 3 of the Examination Rules, we reproduce this Rule at this stage,

3 (i) The candidates obtaining minimum marks in the preliminary examinations as may be fixed by the Commission in their discretion, shall be arranged in the order of marks obtained by them. Out of these candidates only about as many as equal to fifteen times at the most the total number of posts under various categories, will be deemed to qualify for the Main Examination and the results of the preliminary examination shall be announced accordingly. The list of candidates belonging to unreserved category, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and OBC qualifying for main examination shall be separately prepared and their results announced accordingly. Preliminary Examination will only serve as a screening test for selecting candidates for the main examination and marks obtained in this examination will not be considered at the time of final selection of candidates.

(ii) The candidates who appear in the main examination and obtain such minimum marks as may be fixed by the Commission in their discretion will be arranged in the order of total marks obtained by them in the main examination. Out of these candidates only about as many as equal three times the total number of posts under various services will be deemed to qualify for being called for interview. Similarly, a separate list of candidates belonging to unreserved category, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBC who qualify for being called for interview shall be prepared.

(iii) (a) After the interview the candidates will be arranged by the commission in the order of merit as disclosed by the aggregate of marks awarded to them in the Main Examination and the interview.

Due consideration will be given while recommending a candidate for a particular service, preference, if any expressed by him/her in the application subject to the following conditions:

(1) If a candidate has not expressed any preference in the application, he will be considered for all posts in the order in which these have been enumerated in the advertisement.

(2) In case a candidate does not succeed in getting any of the posts of his preference, he will be considered on the basis of his aggregate of marks for other posts in the order in which these have been enumerated in the advertisement. However, he shall not be considered for any post for which he has expressly indicated that he would not like to be considered for it.

(3) The above principles will also apply while preparing supplementary list.

(b) Merit list for each post in the case of candidates belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBC will be similarly prepared separately to the extent of reserved vacancies. In case a candidate belonging to scheduled castes or scheduled tribes or OBC by virtue of his aggregate of marks, f