The select list for filling up vacancies should not lapse until the disposal of the case, and qualified candidates are entitled to appointment against advertised vacancies.

JUDGMENT

B.R. Sarangi, J. - The petitioner, by means of this writ petition, seeks direction to the opposite parties for issuance of order of appointment in his favour in the post of Excise constable, pursuant to the proceeding of District Selection Committee constituted for recruitment of Excise constables of Berhampur Excise District in accordance with physical standard test and written test held on 15.11.2011 to 16.11.2011 and 11.12.2011 in Annexure-1.

2. The factual matrix of the case, in hand, is that the Government of Odisha in Excise Department, vide notification no. 2650/Estt. dated 08.06.2011, issued an advertisement, which was published in print media i.e. daily newspaper "The Samaj" on 09.09.2011 inviting applications from eligible candidates for recruitment of ten nos. of Excise constables in Berhampur Excise District under different categories, which reads as follows:

"Category of Post	Male	Female	= Total
ST	1	1	= 2
SC	1	1	= 2
SEBC	2	1	= 3
UR	2	1	= 3
Total :-	6	4	= 10"

The petitioner, who belonged to Socially Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category, having requisite qualification applied for the said post. In pursuance of the above advertisement, all total 301 (three hundred one) applications were received from different categories of candidates. After scrutiny, 246 applicants were qualified for physical standard test held on 16th and 17th November 2011. The details of category-wise candidate selected for physical standard test is as follows:

ST		SC		SEBC		UR		Total
Man	16	Man	53	Man	106	Man	58	233
Women	1	Women	5	Women	6	Women	1	13
Total	17	Total	58	Total	112	Total	59	246

Out of the above 246 applicants, only 164 candidates (153 male and 11 female) had appeared in the physical standard test on 16th and 17th November, 2011. As against 164 candidates appeared in the physical test, only 18 candidates were qualified, including 2 women candidates, for written test for the post of Excise constable. The category-wise candidates is as follows:

ST	SC	SEBC	UR	Total
1	5 including one women	8	4 including one women	18

The written test was conducted on 11.12.2011 at Chhatrapur, where all the 18 candidates appeared. The merit list of the candidates was worked out which is furnished below:

Sl. No.	Name	Category of Candidates
Unreserved Category
1	Sri Sabyasachi Mishra	UR
2	Gobionda Behera	S.C.
3	Pabitra Mohanty	U.R.
4	Ganesh Kumar Panigrahi	U.R.
5.	Sandhya Rani Gauda	U.R. (W)
S.E.B.C. Category
1	Kanhu Charan Pradhan	SEBC
2	Sisirkanta Nayak	SEBC
3	G. Krishna Rao	SEBC
4.	Ladu Kishor Patra	SEBC
5.	Niranjan Nayak	SEBC
S.C. Category
1	Damburu Prasad Behera	SC
2	Nakula Behera	SC
3	Padmabati Sethi	SC (W)
S.T. Category
1	Rupendra Kumar Rout	ST

In view of the list prepared as mentioned above, no women candidate could qualify in SEBC category.

Therefore, the post reserved for women in SEBC category was decided to be filled up from the SEBC Male candidate as per the merit list.

2.1 At the time of recruitment one candidate named Suresh Bhuyan from ST category filed W.P.(C) No. 32409 of 2011 before this Court challenging the physical tests, wherein this Court passed an interim order that the result of the interview shall be subject to the result of the writ application. On the basis of the selection of the District Selection Committee of the Excise constables held on 15.11.2011, the Excise Commissioner, Odisha, Cuttack approved the proceeding of the District Selection Committee and communicated vide his memo No. 4905 dated 24.08.2012 for appointment of the following candidates as Excise constable.

Sl. No.	Name of the Candidate	Category
1	Sri Sa