By the Court.—The petitioner - appellant (hereinafter referred to as the ‘appellant’) has filed this appeal against the order of dismissal of the writ petition filed by him, wherein the prayer made by the appellant was to quash the final result dated 17th May, 2010 of the selections in relation to the posts of Police Constables in Uttar Pradesh Police. The contention raised by the appellant was rejected on the ground that the appellant, being a candidate of Other Backward Class, has secured lesser marks than the minimum cut-off marks fixed for the said category and, therefore, no relief can be granted.

2. Shri Hari Om Khare, learned counsel for the appellant, submits that the learned Single Judge did not appreciate the controversy in correct perspective, inasmuch as the selections have been held by applying the provisions of vertical and horizontal reservations in a way that prejudices the candidature of the appellant as against the lesser meritorious candidates of the female category. He submits that, in order to accommodate female category candidates, results have been prepared in a way that contravenes the maximum permissible limit of 20 percent reservation for women category-wise, which aspect has been completely overlooked by the learned Single Judge and, hence, the impugned order is liable to be set aside and the writ petition deserves to be allowed.

3. The appeal was entertained and the learned Standing Counsel was called upon to obtain instructions with regard to the aforesaid issues raised on behalf of the appellant, as taken in Ground No. 13 of the appeal, which is as follows :

“(13) BECAUSE according to the terms and conditions of Advertisement, 27% seats for O.B.C. category are reserved out of total 35000 total seats, which comes 9450 seats in which 20% seats are reserved for female O.B.C. Candidates, thus total Female OBC seats comes 1890 but only 2744 female O.B.C. candidates have been selected which is beyond the conditions of the Advertisement and as such the respondents have wrongly and illegally selected 854 extra Female Constables, due to which the Cut-off Marks of O.B.C. Male candidates upheld to the extent of 111.9517 and if the respondents would have selected only 1890 Female O.B.C. candidates then Cut-off Marks must become beneath 111.9517 and the appellant would have been selected but Hon’ble Single Judge has not looked into the matter properly and dismissed the writ petition ignoring the same.”

4. A short counter-affidavit has been filed by one Habibul Hasan on behalf of respondent No. 2, wherein it has been stated that the horizontal reservation meant for female category candidates has been applied on overall basis by cumulatively taking into account all the 35000 posts advertised and, hence, according to the said calculation, 7000 posts stand reserved for females candidates out of said vacancies. On the strength of such calculation, it is contended on behalf of the respondents, that the selections, which have been made of 5345 female candidates, is still less than the permissible limit of 20 percent. A chart has been prepared disclosing the vertical and the horizontal reservations, as indicated in the communication dated 17th May, 2010, which is part of the record. The said chart indicates that, as per vertical reservation, 9450 candidates are to be accommodated from the Other Backward Class category, in which the appellant has claimed his entitlement. This includes both male and female candidates. Applying 20 percent horizontal reservation for female category candidates, the figure comes to 1890. From a perusal of the horizontal reservation chart, as disclosed in the said document of the respondents, it is evident that 2744 candidates of female category of Other Backward Class have been selected.

5. A rejoinder affidavit has been filed by the appellant contending that from the own showing of the respondents, 854 extra female candidates of Other Backward Class have been selected instead of 18