IMPORTANT POINT
Candidates from reserved categories, based on their own merit, can be selected in the general category without being counted against the reserved quota, and the prescribed percentage of reservations for backward classes must be strictly followed.

JUDGMENT :

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J.

The instant petition has been filed for grant of the following substantive relief:-

“(i) That the present Original Application may very kindly be allowed and further the respondent Corporation may be directed to fill up the vacancies of Transport Multi Purpose Assistants strictly as per the Advertisement dated 03.08.2017 with the break up of vacancies as detailed in the corrigendum Annexure A-1. That the seats of General Category be filled up to the extent of 715 seats as advertised and in no case the said seats be allowed to be transferred to or be filled up from the other categories i.e. SC, ST and OBC.”

2. The respondent issued an advertisement dated 03.08.2017 thereby inviting applications of qualified candidates for filling up for 715 posts of Transport Multi Purpose Assistant (TMPA) of General Category, out of which 104 were to be filled up from General BPL, 13 from General FF, 117 from General Ex serviceman and 39 from sports.

3. The petitioner appeared in the written test and was shortlisted for valuation of documents. The petitioner secured 74 marks in the written test and 4.38 marks in the evaluation and in this way he secured 78.38 marks.

4. The grievance of the petitioner is that the seats of General Category have not been filled up as per the quota set out in the advertisement, rather the candidates belonging to other categories have occupied the seats meant for general category leaving the general category candidates in lurch. It is further averred that as against the advertised seats of 286 for SC Category, as many as 333 candidates have been selected. Likewise, for 163 post of OBC (General) nearly 286 candidates have been recruited, whereas for the general category, only 391 seats have been filled up against the allocated quota of 715 posts in total.

5. The respondent in its reply has averred that the candidates, who otherwise belonged to SC and OBC categories have their own merit being selected and are required to be considered as candidates in the general category in terms of the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney & Ors. vs. Union of India & Ors., 1992 Suppl. (3) SCC 217, wherein the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held “in this connection, it is well to remember that the reservation under Article 16(4) do not operate like a communal reservation. It may well happen that the members belonging to, say Scheduled Caste get selected in the open competition field on the basis of their own merit; they will not be counted against the quota reserved for Scheduled Castes; they will be treated as open competition candidates.”

6. When the matter came up before the Coordinate Bench on 10.11.2023, the Court passed the following order:-

“Reply stands filed. Rejoinder thereto also stands filed.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has pointed out that ground taken in the petition in para 6 (f) is specific in nature, whereas vague reply has been filed thereto and, therefore, it has to be considered that respondent has no ground to repel the ground taken in the said para.

Faced with aforesaid situation, learned counsel for the respondent-Corporation seeks one opportunity to file supplementary affidavit to place on record specific response to the aforesaid para by giving specific reply. Accepting his prayer, two weeks time, as prayed, is granted.”

7. Pursuant to the aforesaid directions, the respondent has filed supplementary affidavit, wherein the break-up of the following different categories has been given as under:-

8. It is averred that total 442 posts were to be filled up against open category, which were filled up as per instructions contained in para-4 of the Notification No. PER (AP) C-F-2/2001, dated 12.11.2014, which reads as under:-

"In this context it is clarified that