K.T. Sankaran, J.

1. The question involved in this Writ Petition is whether the Petitioner can be permitted to carry out corrections in the application submitted by her before the Kerala Public Service Commission for selection to the post of Laboratory Assistant in the Kerala Vocational Higher Secondary Education Department, so as to claim the benefit of communal reservation, after the select list was published and when the Petitioner had filled up the column in the application stating that she is not eligible for communal reservation.

2. The Kerala Public Service Commission invited applications from qualified candidates for appointment to the post of Laboratory Assistant in Kerala Vocational Higher Secondary Education Department, as per the Gazette Notification dated 2-11 -2004 for direct recruitment and for appointment from "by transfer" category. The candidates were required to fill up the application form and also to fill up the OMR data sheet The Petitioner submitted the application. Column 5 of the application contains the question "Are you eligible for communal reservation (Answer Yes or No)". The answer given by the Petitioner was "No". In column 17 of the OMR data sheet, for the question "whether eligible for communal reservation", the answer was given by bubbling the required column "No" indicating that the Petitioner is not eligible for communal reservation. In column 4 of the application, Religion and Community are shown as Hindu and Thiyya respectively.

3. The Petitioner was called for a written test on 24-2-2007. Aprobability list was published by the Public Service Commission on 28-2-2008. The Petitioner was included in the list. The Petitioner was called for interview on 14-3-2008. The Petitioner states that she produced the original certificates for verification. A ranked list was published on 10-6-2008. The Petitioner is included in the main list of the ranked list with Rank No. 708 against general quota. The Public Service Commission states that the ranked list contains 1052 candidates in the main list and 2410 candidates in the supplementary list for various communities.

4. The Petitioner belongs to OBC (Thiyya community). She claims that that she is entitled to communal reservation. Unfortunately, by inadvertent mistake, while filling up the OMR data sheet, she bubbled the column "No" indicating that she was ineligible for reservation, though she had properly shown her community as Thiyya. It was also written in the application that she belongs to Thiyya community. The Petitioner states that on 14-3-2008, the second Respondent stated that the Petitioner has not claimed the community quota reservation. The necessary documents produced by the Petitioner including Non-creamy layer Certificate were not accepted by the second Respondent. Only then the Petitioner came to know that there was mistake in the application submitted by her. The Petitioner submitted Ext. P-3 representation dated 2-4-2008 to the first Respondent. She sought to rectify the mistakes in the application. Ext. P-3 was not disposed of by the first Respondent.

5. The relief prayed for by the Petitioner is for the issue of a writ of mandamus commanding the Respondents to accept the documents produced by her and to include her in the select list for me post of Laboratory Assistant against the community quota reservation, after permitting her to cure the defect in the application form.

6. In the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the Respondents, it is stated that the Petitioner had deliberately expressed her intention not to claim the community benefit If she had filled up the columns showing "Yes" to the question whether she was claiming community reservation status, the Commission would have certainly considered the same. It is not a question of wrongly marking the bubbles nor is it an inadvertent mistake. A deliberate statement, as revealed from an answer given by her in the application form, that she is not claiming the community reser