IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Reservation is justified only when concern of both, backwardness and underrepresentation in services is addressed sufficiently.
(2) Appointment of Civil Judges – Claim made by a candidate while filling his or her application as per concerned advertisement are to hold good as on date of his or her application or as per last date of submission of applications prescribed advertisement – No relaxation can be claimed as a matter of right.

JUDGMENT

AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J.

1. The present set of appeals have travelled to this 3- Judge Bench as a result of the split verdict delivered through Judgment dated 18.05.2023 in Civil Appeal No. 3957 of 2023 and other connected matters including Civil Appeal No. 3908 of 2023 which was de-tagged from the instant batch vide Order dated 06.11.2024, by Division Bench of this Court.

2. The factual backdrop in the present set of appeals is being culled primarily from the Civil Appeal No. 3957 of 2023, as it is agreed that the issue involved in these appeals arises from the 2010 Rules which regulate the appointment of Civil Judges in the state of Rajasthan and the relevant facts are identical.

2.1 The Rajasthan High Court – Respondent No. 1 published an Advertisement dated 22.07.2021 (hereinafter referred to as “Advertisement”) inviting applications for appointment to the post of Civil Judge Cadre being the “Civil Judge Examination 2021” as per the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as “2010 Rules), which was admittedly silent on the aspect of the last date of issuance of the concerned certificates for each reserved category. The last date for receipt of the applications was 31.08.2021. Preliminary Test was held on 28.11.2021 followed by the conduct of the Mains Examinations on 30.04.2022 to 01.05.2022. A Notice dated 04.08.2022 (hereinafter referred to as “Subsequent Notice”) was issued, which mentioned that the concerned reserved category certificates ought not to have been issued beyond 31.08.2021.

3. The Appellants in all the appeals belong to different reserved categories, i.e., Other Backward Classes (Non- Creamy Layer) (hereinafter referred to as “OBC-NCL”), Most Backward Classes (Non-Creamy Layer) (hereinafter referred to as “MBC-NCL”) or Economically Weaker Section (hereinafter referred to as “EWS”) categories. These candidates successfully cleared their preliminary examination, followed by mains examination, as per the requirements of marks in their respective categories. However, as none of these candidates had their certificates issued as per the date specified in the Subsequent Notice, their names were not included in the list of the candidates called for interview.

4. This grievance compelled the Appellants to file a series of separate writ petitions before the High Court of Rajasthan, both at Jodhpur, and the Bench at Jaipur. The first and foremost writ was moved by Ms. Jyoti Beniwal, the Appellant in Civil Appeal No. 3909 of 2023 herein, before the Division Bench of High Court of Rajasthan as D.B. Civil Writ Petition No 11784 of 2022, challenging the condition imposed by the Rajasthan High Court in its Subsequent Notice, requiring candidates under the reserved category to submit a certificate issued within one year of the application deadline i.e. 31.08.2021 or a certificate issued between 31.08.2018 and 30.08.2020, along with an affidavit. The petitioner therein, having cleared the preliminary and mains examinations, contended that no deadline for submitting the OBC-NCL certificate was specified in the Advertisement, and therefore, the late imposition of this condition is arbitrary and unjust. Citing Ram Kumar Gijroya v. Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board and Another, (2016) 4 SCC 754 petitioner therein sought to be interviewed under the OBC-NCL category, referring to the lack of such a deadline in the Advertisement.

5. The High Court of Rajasthan, vide Order dated 18.08.2022, rejected the request, observing that OBC- NCL status is determined annually and requires a valid certificate at the time of the application submission. Relying on this Court’s decision in Ashok Kumar Sonkar v. Union of India and Others, 2007 (4) SCC 54 it observed that where no specific date is provided for document submission, the cut-off date for application submission is applicable. The Division Bench also referred to other decisions, namely, Gaurav Sharma v. State of U.P. through Principal Secy. and 3 Oth