The merit list holds good only for the purpose of filling up the notified vacancies and no further. Appointments must be confined to the posts for which recruitment requisition was sent, and waiting lists should be exceptions rather than the rule.

JUDGMENT :

KRISHNA MURARI, J.

1. This intra-court appeal filed by the petitioner-appellant is directed against the judgment and order dated 20.02.2019 passed by the learned Single Judge dismissing the writ petition.

2. Facts required to be noticed for effective adjudication of the controversy at hands are limited and can be summarized as under:-

Haryana Staff Selection Commission (for short 'the Commission') advertised 38 vacancies for the posts of Taxation Inspector vide advertisement No. 15 of 2007 dated 07.12.2007. Breakup of general category and reserved category was as under:-

"General 14, SC 13, BCA 3, BCB 3, ESM General-2, ESM BCA 1, ESM BCB 1, OPS SC 1."

A written test was held by the Commission on 24.05.2009. On the basis of the result of the written examination 115 candidates were short listed for interview. Appellant-petitioner was also an applicant under the Scheduled Caste category and after qualifying the written test was called for interview. Admittedly, he secured total 280 marks as against 281 marks obtained by the last selected candidate in the main select list of SC category. He was placed at Sr. No.2 in the waiting list of the Scheduled Caste category. The Commission recommended the names of 38 candidates alongwith the names of 16 candidates in the waiting list. It is not disputed that all the selected candidates were appointed in the year 2010 itself.

3. After about two years the appellant-petitioner challenged the selection process in the year 2012 on multiple grounds such as Selection Committee deliberately did not award more marks in the interview to the candidates in reserve categories in order to select the general category candidates and that the vacancies which have arisen after the advertisement ought to have been filled up from the waiting list. The allegations of procedural irregularities and favoritism in the selection process were also made. During the pendency of the writ petition it was sought to be amended in the year 2013. By the proposed amendment, all the grounds of challenge in the unamended petition were given up and a completely new ground was introduced that as against 16 available posts in the Scheduled Caste category only 13 have been selected by the respondents and since he has been placed at Sr. No. 15 in the select list he comes within the zone of selection if all the 16 posts of Scheduled caste category are filled up.

4. The writ proceedings were contested by the respondent-department by filing the written statement. It was stated therein that when the requisition was sent to the Commission on 08.10.2007 for making direct recruitment to the post of Taxation Inspectors, 38 posts were available and requisition for the same was sent. It was also stated that the Department had duly taken into consideration the backlog of the Scheduled caste category as pointed out by the Welfare Department in their Audit Note dated 05.05.2005. There were 10 backlog vacancies of the Scheduled Caste category which included the backlog of promotional share which is in the ratio of 50:50. Thus out of total 10 backlog vacancies as per Rules as well as the roster point only 5 backlog vacancies of scheduled caste category came in the share of direct recruits. Out of 38 vacancies advertised by the Commission, 13 vacancies were for scheduled caste category which included 5 backlog vacancies.

5. The moot issue for consideration is whether an appointment could be made out of the candidates placed in the waiting list on the vacancies which were not advertised. The issue is no longer res-integra and stands answered by number of pronouncements of the Hon'ble Apex Court. Reference may be made to the pronouncement of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the State of Bihar v. Madan Mohan Singh, 1994 Supp3 SCC 308 wherein it was held that since the advertisement and the whole selection process were meant only for 32 vacancies and the process came to an end as soon as these vacancies were filled up. If the same list has to be kept alive