Horizontal reservation candidates must be confined to their quota posts, not migrated to general even if meritorious; vertical reserved candidates may adjust to general if outperforming last general selectee.

JUDGMENT :

Ranjan Sharma, J.

Since the factual matrix and the issue involved and the relief(s) claimed are pari materia, therefore, with the consent of Learned Counsel for the parties, all these petitions are taken up together for adjudication.

2. At the very outset, Learned Counsel(s) for the petitioners states that CWPOA No. 2550 of 2019, titled as Arif Hussain & Others vs State of Himachal Pradesh & Others, may be treated as the ‘Lead Case’ for adjudicating all connected petitions. Prayer being innocuous is not opposed by the Learned Respondent Counsel(s) and therefore, this Court proceeds ahead for adjudicating the claim herein.

FACTUAL MATRIX IN LEAD CASE: CWPOA No 2550 OF 2019 :

3. Petitioners, Arif Hussain and 48 others in Lead Case, CWPOA No.2550 of 2019, have come up, before this Court, seeking the following relief(s):-

“(i). That the respondents may very kindly be directed to redraw the result of Transport Multipurpose Assistants category wise by placing the sub-category candidates in their respective categories and replacing them with other candidates falling in order of merit from 3816 candidates who had qualified the written test strictly restricting the whole exercise in all the categories to the applicants in the present original application.”

4. Case as set up by Learned Counsel for the petitioners in Lead Case CWPOA No. 2550 of 2019, Arif Hussain & Others versus The State of Himachal Pradesh and Others and other connected petitions is that the Respondent-Corporation issued an Advertisement dated 03.08.2017 [Annexure A-1] and a Corrigendum in September 2017 [Annexure A-3] for filling of 1300 posts of Transport Multipurpose Assistant(s) (herein referred to as TMPA) from general category and other reserved categories under vertical and horizontal reserved categories, reads as under:

HIMACHAL ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORTION, SHIMLA- 171003
CORRIGENDUM WITH REGARD TO INCREASE IN NUMBER OF POSTS FROM 1000 TO 1300

In continuation to the advertisement dated 03.08.2017 appeared in the News Papers “The Tribune”, “Divya Himachal” “Punjab Kesari” & Amar Ujala (HP Edition), following Amendments/Corrigendum are being made:

1. The number of posts for TMPAs has been increased from 1000 to 1300. The detail of category-wise number of vacancies are as under:

DETAILS OF CATEGORY-WISE NUMBER OF VACANCIES

2. The last date of submission of online applications is 31.08.2017 by 05:00 PM along with all the relevant certificates accompanied by the original demand draft of Rs.100/- in the name of Financial Advisor cum Chief Accounts Officer, HRTC, Shimla-171003 in the nearest Regional Office.

3. The admit cards will be available on the HRTC website www.hrtchp.com from 07.09.2017 onwards and the written test will be held on 17.09.2017.

4. The Skill Development Trainees who have been found to be involved in embezzlement cases shall not be eligible for these posts.

Sd/-
Managing Director,
Himachal Road Transport Corporation,
Shimla-171003.

4(i). Grievance of petitioners in Lead Case is that they belong to General-UR Category and other reserved categories (under vertically and horizontal) since the petitioners were eligible for the post of Transport Multipurpose Assistant [referred to as ‘TMPA’] in terms of Advertisement dated 03.08.2017 [Ann