The court ruled that the amendment for reservation in judicial appointments is prospective, affirming that prior selections without statutory backing are unconstitutional but saved appointments remain valid.

JUDGMENT :

1. By this common order and judgment, we propose to dispose of both the writ petitions together in view of the nature of controversy involved. However, for convenience, the facts in both the cases are set out below separately.

WP(C ) No. 2412/2029 :

2. Pursuant to a request made by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission ["PSC‟] notified 42 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division)/Munsiffs vide Advertisement Notification No. PSC/EXAM/2018/39 dated 30.05.2018. The breakup of the posts was in the following manner:

3. The Advertisement Notice aforesaid, inter alia, prescribed 3% horizontal reservation for physically challenged candidates, to be applied in accordance with relevant rules. In all, 2943 candidates were provisionally allowed to appear in the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Judicial) Preliminary Examination, 2018 conducted by the PSC on 28.10.2018. On the basis of result of the preliminary examination, the PSC vide its notification No. PSC/EXAM/19/2018 dated 17.11.2018 notified the roll numbers of the candidates declared to have qualified for admission to the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Judicial) Main Examination, 2018. As per the record, 793 candidates including three physically challenged candidates qualified for the main examination which was conducted by the PSC w.e.f 23.-3.2019 to 04.04.2019. The result of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Judicial) Main Examination, 2018 was declared by the PSC vide its Notification No PSC/EXAM/44/2019 dated 20.06.2019 whereby 162 candidates were declared qualified for the interview. The petitioner came to be excluded from the list in view of his merit position vis-a-vis the candidates in the open merit category. The petitioner, who had applied under the category of physically handicapped (PHC) with locomotor disability of 50% was expecting his short-listing for interview on the basis of his merit in the PHC category, however, the PSC did not accord such consideration to the petitioner and, therefore, kept him out of the zone of consideration.

4 On conclusion of the process of viva voce /interview, the PSC vide its notification No. PSC/Exam/64/2019 dated 22.08.2019 published the merit list (Annexure-I) and the select list of 40 candidates (Annexure-II). After conducting the medical examination, the selected candidates were recommended for appointment. The petitioner is aggrieved of and has challenged the list of candidates shortlisted for viva voce vide notification dated 20.06.2019 (supra) as also the list of selected candidates issued by the PSC vide its notification dated 22.08.2019 (supra). The petitioner also prays for a writ of mandamus to the PSC to conduct his interview and appoint him as Civil Judge (Junior Division)/Munsiff [„Munsiff‟] against one vacancy earmarked for PHC.

5. In the writ petition, the petitioner has raised his grievance against the selections made pursuant to Advertisement Notice dated 24.12.2013 and Advertisement Notice dated 3.2.2017. It is extremely important to take note that this Court vide order dated 18.04.2022 passed in this petition clubbed with WP(C) Nos.3317/2019 and 2273/2021, while deleting the respondents 4 to 15 from the arrays of respondents on the basis of statement made at bar by learned counsel for the petitioner, held that the prayer made by the petitioner in respect of selections and appointments of Munsiffs made pursuant to the Advertisement Notifications of 2013 and 2017 had become redundant and that the case of the petitioner would be examined only in reference to Advertisement Notification dated 30.05.2018.

6. A simple case pleaded by the petitioner in this petition is that he was a candidate seeking consideration under OM/PHC category and had cleared both the preliminary and main examinations conducted by the PSC. He was not considered under his reserved category and was, thus, not amon