Point of Law: no mandamus can be issued by the Court to the State to collect quantifiable data relating to adequacy of representation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in public services.”

JUDGMENT :

1. The issues involved in all these petitions are similar. They are heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment. The facts as is discernible from the record of Special Civil Application No.19090 of 2017 are as under.

2. The petitioners have been serving as Unarmed Constable, Head Constable or Assistant Sub-Inspector and all of them have rendered more than 15 years of service. The petitioners have challenged the action of the respondent authorities in not providing women reservation in the recruitment to the post of Police Sub-Inspector (Unarmed) Class- III and thereby denying legitimate right of the petitioners for being appointed against such posts. The petitioners in one of the petitions have also challenged the action of the respondent authorities of not providing separate category-wise qualifying standard for women candidates despite there being different criteria provided for male and female candidates for such recruitment. The petitioners have, inter alia, prayed for following reliefs:

“6. The petitioner respectfully pray that, on the basis of the facts and circumstances as mentioned hereinabove and which may be urged at the time of hearing, the Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to the respondent authorities and may be pleased to:-

(A) declare and hold that, the action of the respondent authorities of not providing women reservation in the recruitment to the post of Police Sub-Inspector (Unarmed), Class-III, pursuant to advertisement No.61/2015-16 is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory, unconstitutional and violative of rules thereof, and

(B) declare and hold that the present petitioners are eligible and entitled to be considered for appointment to the post of Police Sub- Inspector (Unarmed), Class-III and further be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to consider the present petitioners for appointment to the post of Police Sub-Inspector (Unarmed), Class-III, and

… … ...”

3. Tersely stated are the facts.

3.1 An Advertisement No.61/2015-16 came to be published on 3.12.2015 inviting applications from the eligible candidates, serving as Assistant Sub-Inspector (Unarmed) or Head Constable (Unarmed) or Police Constable (Unarmed) and have rendered total 15 years of service, for appointment by way of a Special Competitive Examination to the post of Police Sub-Inspector (Unarmed), Class-III. By said advertisement, total 260 posts were advertised and out of which 202 seats were reserved for general / open category, 22 for scheduled castes and 34 for scheduled tribes. According to the petitioners, subsequently, modified advertisement was published by the respondent No.3 – Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board (hereinafter referred to as 'the Selection Board') on 7.12.2016 whereby total 403 posts were advertised, in view of the judgment of this Court. On both the occasions, no separate category-wise reservation was provided for women.

3.2 As per the recruitment rules and advertisement, Special Competitive Examination was to be conducted in three stages viz. (i) physical test; (ii) objective type written test; and (iii) subjective type written test. Candidates participating in this examination were required to obtain minimum qualifying marks in each stage for male and female candidates and separate physical standard was provided for being eligible for participation. Since all the present petitioners were fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed in the rules and the advertisement, they applied and had participated in the selection process. The grievance raised is that though there is a policy for providing 33% women reservation in employment, the same is not provided in the present advertisement. In absence of the provision for women reservation, the petitioners and other similarly situated female candidates approached the respondent Nos.1 and 2 authorities requesting them to provide reservation for women as per the