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2006 Supreme(All) 2445
[2006(8) ADJ 128]
ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT
BEFORE : A.P. SAHI, J.
SANGAM NATH PANDEY, ETC. ETC. .......Petitioners
Versus
STATE OF U.P. AND OTHERS, ETC. ETC. ......Respondents
(Civil Misc. Writ Petition Nos. 16005 of 2006 Connected with C.M.W.P. Nos. 20637, 25486 and 26122 of 2006, decided on 5th September, 2006)
Counsel :
Ashok Khare, and Amit Srivastava, for the Petitioners; C.B. Yadav, M.A. Qadeer, D.B. Yadav, R.C. Maurya, V.K. Singh, M.N. Singh, Mahesh Narain Singh, P.S. Baghel and V.K. Dixit , S.C. for the Respondents.
Headnote:Appointment—On posts of Junior Engineer (Civil) in Irrigation Department—Challenge to Selection process held by Public Service Commission—Validity of—Manner of filling of reserved vacancies—Contention of petitioner that Rule 3 of U.P. Public Services (Reservation of SCs, STs and OBC, Rules 1994—1994 Rules have been violated, could not be accepted—And contention that non-applicability of Rosters, have resulted in any discrimination, on basis of facts on records, required an in-depth calculation according to Roster points, as envisaged under U.P. Act No. 4 of 1994, which exercise was not disclosed before Court—State Government has not over-stepped 50% reservation quota—But selections have to be finalised after applying Rosters—In absence of any pleadings of facts and figures of previous years examinations said issues, to be probed by State Government and Commission, before finalising selections—Therefore, as State Government and commission have calculated number of posts to be offered to reserved category candidates correctly—If Roster was applied then that would automatically bring about desired fulfilment of object of reservations, and would, at same time, not block process of those general category candidates, who would stand to loose permanently in event Roster was not applied—Therefore, respondent directed to undertake exercise of carrying out calculation after applying Rosters and then finalise selections. [U.P. Public Services (Reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994—Sections 2(d) and 3—Constitution of India—Article 16(4-B)—Allahabad High Court Rules, 1951—Chapter XXII, Rule 5-A]. [Paras 21, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 27]
Hon’ble A.P. Sahi, J.—These writ petitions raise a challenge to the selections on the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) in the Irrigation Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh. The selections have been held by the U.P. Public Service Commission under a requisition of the Irrigation Department pursuant whereto the posts were advertised on 22.12.2000.
2. All the writ petitions have been heard together and are connected as they raise common questions of law and fact and the petitioners in the writ petitions are of the general category who are aggrieved by the results declared as they do not find themselves finally selected which they allege is a result of an arbitrary action on the part of the respondents for which several grounds have been urged on their behalf.
3. A requisition was made by the Irrigation Department, Government of U.P., on 20.10.1999 pursuant whereto an advertisement was issued on 22.12.2000 and the last date for filling up the applications was 27.1.2001. The said advertisement which is Annexure-1 to the leading petition discloses the total number of posts vacant and available for selection as 954. The break up of the said posts disclosed in the Advertisement is 477 posts for the general category, 257 posts for the other backward category, 200 posts for the f\ Schedule Caste category and 20 posts for the Schedule Tribes category. The examinations were conducted on 22/23.12.2001 and the results of the written examinations was declared on 6.10.2005. In between this period, it is to be noted that the Supreme Court on 21.1.2002 passed an interim order in a Special Leave Petition restraining the issuance of any executive instructions pursuant to the amendment brought about in the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 through U.P. Act No. 21 of 2001. In h view of the aforesaid stay order granted by the Supreme Court, the Government of U.P. in its wisdom, proceeded to restore the position of the 1994 Act in consonance with the decision in the case of R.K. Sabharwal v. State of Punjab, (1995) 2 SCC 745, and also amend the Act suitably in the light of the provisions of Article 16 (4-B) of the Constitution of India. Consequently this took the shape of an Act namely U.P. Act No. 1 of 2002 and the issuance of 2 ordinances, namely Ordinance No. 2 of 2002 promulgated on 6.6.2002 and U.P. Ordinance No. 7 of 2002 promulgated on 25.6.2002.
4. As a consequence of these developments between the issuance of the advertisement and the declaration of the results of the written examinations, the Chief Engineer of the Irrigation Department who had earlier sent the requisition for selections sent a letter on 6.11.2003 intimating the Secretary of the Public Service Commission that in view of the reorganization of the State of U.P. and the creation of the new State of Uttaranchal, 2 per cent reduction in the vacancies advertised for direct recruitment has to be made and further due to more vacancies available in the year 2003-04, the total number of posts against which selections were to be conducted was reduced to 887 against 954 earlier advertised. The break up of the said 887 posts was given as 260 posts for the general category, 391 for the other backward category, 223 for the Scheduled Caste Category and 13 for the Scheduled Tribes Category. The said modification brought about a change in the number of posts available for each category as against the original advertisement of 954 posts. Two letters were issued by the Chief Engineer on 13.10.2005 and 25.10.2005 stating therein that the corrigendum dated 6.11.2003 should be understood as a request for 520 posts for general recruitment and 367 posts for special recruitment.
5. The Commission in view of the aforesaid changes had also asked for option from the reserved category candidates as to their choice to be considered against 520 posts of general recruitment or against the 367 posts of special recr
