GUJARAT PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION vs NIKETA BABULAL CHAUDHARI

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2021 Supreme(Guj) 244

IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
VINEET KOTHARI, BIREN VAISHNAV, JJ.
GUJARAT PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION - Appellant
Versus
NIKETA BABULAL CHAUDHARI & 2 others - Respondent
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1105 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 15057 of 2014
With
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1106 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 16620 of 2014
With
CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR ORDERS) NO. 1 of 2016
In R/LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1106 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 16620 of 2014
With
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1108 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14330 of 2014
With
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1109 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14849 of 2014
With
CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR STAY) NO. 1 of 2015
In R/LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1109 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14849 of 2014
With
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1110 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 2125 of 2015
With
CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR JOINING PARTY) NO. 2 of 2016
In R/LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1110 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 2125 of 2015
With
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1187 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14849 of 2014
With
CIVIL APPLICATION (FIXING DATE OF EARLY HEARING) NO. 1 of
2020
In
LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 1187 of 2015
In
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14849 of 2014
Decided On : 31-03-2021

Advocates Appeared:
For the Appellant : MR DG SHUKLA
For the Respondent: MR KM ANTANI, Assistant Government Pleader

Headnote:(A) Gujarat Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 1997; Constitutional Law - Violation of reservation principles - The appellant GPSC adopted erroneous methods for determining qualifying standards, applying 10% relaxation based on the last male candidate's cutoff marks, impacting female candidates’ reservations. The learned Single Judge held this practice was contrary to the relevant rules and undermined women’s rightful reservations, ultimately quashing the selection list. (Paras 16.5, 25)

(B) Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination - The court reaffirmed that horizontal reservations for women must maintain integrity without favoring any gender inequities, ensuring selection based on merit for women as equals. (Paras 18.6, 36)

Facts of the case:
The appeals stem from GPSC's decision regarding the selection process for Assistant Conservator of Forests and Range Forest Officers, which faced challenges asserting discrimination against female candidates following adjustments of male candidates to unfilled reserved posts. (Paras 1-2)

Findings of Court:
The court ruled that the GPSC's method for determining cutoff undermined the aim of women's reservation, leading to recommendations being set aside and necessitating fresh selection procedures. (Paras 57)

Issues: The main issues included the legality of adopting a last male candidate's score as a standard for women’s reservation and the overall adherence to gender equity principles in appointments.

Ratio Decidendi: The court maintained that assessing women candidates must be separate and equitable, independent of male performance, emphasizing statutory adherence. (Paras 57, 25)

Result: Appeals dismissed; selection list quashed, necessitating new appointments for eligible female candidates. (Paras 57, 22)

Table of Content
1. introduction of the case and relevant background. (Para 1 , 2)
2. appeal against gpsc method and procedure. (Para 3)
3. arguments in favor of gpsc procedure. (Para 4)
4. analysis of recruitment rules and impact of decisions. (Para 11 , 12 , 13)
5. rationale behind rejecting gpsc's criteria. (Para 19)
6. final orders and direction regarding selection. (Para 20 , 21 , 22)

JUDGMENT :

BIREN VAISHNAV, J.

1. These appeals have been filed against the common CAV judgement of the learned Single Judge dated 11.06.2015 passed in the respective Special Civil Applications, namely, Special Civil Applications No. 15057 of 2014, 16620 of 2014, 14330 of 2014, 14849 of 2014, 2125 of 2015. Letters Patent Appeals No. 1105, 1106, 1108, 1109 and 1110 of 2015 have been filed by the Gujarat Public Service Commission whereas Letters Patent Appeal No. 1187 of 2015 has been filed by the original petitioner of Special Civil Application No. 14849 of 2014, a respondent also in Letters Patent Appeal No. 1109 of 2015 filed by the GPSC.

2. Facts in brief are as under:

2.1 The judgement under challenge is at the behest of the original petitioners, who were treated as unsuccessful candidates by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) in the selection process for the post of Assistant Conservator of Forests, Class II (for short 'ACF') and Range Forest Officer, Class II (for short 'RFO') conducted pursuant to the advertisement dated 01.03.2010 (Advertisement No. 209/200910).

2.2 On 01.03.2010, the GPSC published an advertisement inviting applications for 47 posts of ACF (Class II) and 120 posts of RFO (Class-II). The distribution of 167 posts (47 + 120) in the advertisement is summarised as below:

Adv. No.	Name of Post	Total Posts	Category wise posts.	Category wise reserved posts for women
			Open S.C. S.T. SEBC	Open SC ST SEBC
209	Assistant Conservator of Forest Class II	47	24 3 7 13	8 1 2 4
	Range Forest Officer, Class II	120	60 6 19 35	18 1 6 11
	Total Posts	167	84 9 26 48	26 2 8 15

2.3 What is evident from the summarized table produced hereinabove is that for the purposes of female category in all categories, 15 posts of ACF and 36 posts of RFO were reserved for women. This was in accordance with the Gujarat Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 1997 (for short 'Rules, 1997') which at the relevant time prescribed 30% reservation for women candidates.

2.4 On 30.05.2010, the GPSC conducted a preliminary test. From 27.05.2013 to 02.06.2013, the GPSC conducted written tests. On 21.05.2014, GPSC declared the result of the main Written Examination. 505 candidates had cleared the main Written Examination and appeared for the Personal Interview scheduled from 16.06.2014 to 31.07.2014. On 25.09.2014, GPSC declared the final result of the competitive examination for the posts of ACF and RFO. The preparation of the merit list and declaration of results on 25.09.2014 gave rise to the petitions as the original petitioners – women candidates were declared unsuccessful.

2.5 Pleadings of Letters Patent Appeal No. 1109 of 2015 were considered for the purposes of analysis of the judgement of the learned Single Judge in context of the issue under consideration. The result dated 25.09.2014 made the following declarations in the merit:

(ii) The result stipulated that as against this, 19 women of General Category, 6 women of SEBC Category, 1 woman of SC Category and 04 women of ST Category, thus total 30 women candidates have been selected.

(iii) Clause 9 of the result declared that the required number of women candidates o

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2021 Supreme(Guj) 244

Cases Referred (24)