Horizontal reservation should be accounted for only in the concerned category, and excessive reservation is not permissible under the law.

Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the entire mate rial available on the record.

2. Brief facts, which emerge out from the record, are that the respond ent no. 1 Uttarakhand Public Service Commission issued an advertisement no. A-7/e-1/07-08 whereby 33 vacan cies of Civil Judge (Junior Division) were notified. Out of these 33 vacancies, 5 were reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste Category who are residents of Uttarakhand State. It was provided in the advertise ment that horizontal reservation shall be applicable as per relevant Govern ment Orders. Since the petitioner pos sessed all eligibility conditions as indi cated in the advertisement, he applied for the post of Civil Judge (Jr. Div.) claiming benefit of reservation as Scheduled Caste Category candidate. The petitioner appeared in the prelimi nary examination and thereafter in main examination as well as in inter view. The result thereof was declared on 02-10-2008 but the name of the petitioner was not placed in the select list. Since the petitioner was confident in getting selected in the examination, he was surprised to find that he was not selected. As such, the petitioner made an application to respondent no. 1 requesting to disclose the marks scored by him. The petitioner was in formed vide office memorandum dated 07-10-2008 that he scored 458 marks out of 850 in written examination and 71 marks out of 100 in interview, thus 529 marks out of 950 aggregate. Thereafter, the petitioner made an ap plication under Right to Information Act to respondent no. 1 requesting to disclose the marks scored by respond ent nos. 4, 6 & 7 but the respondent no. 1 did not furnish information as sought by the petitioner. The peti tioner, thereafter unofficially enquired about the marks scored by respondent nos. 4, 6 & 7 in the aforesaid exami nation and it was revealed that all of them had scored much lesser marks than the petitioner. The petitioner scored 529 marks whereas respondent nos. 4, 6 & 7 scored 489, 489 and 483 marks respectively. In spite of the fact that the petitioner scored higher marks, he was not selected.

3. The State Govt. issued a reser vation policy vide Govt. Order dated 18-07-2001, which provides 19% ver tical reservation for the Scheduled Caste. This Govt. Order further pro vides 20% horizontal reservation for women. It is further clarified in the Govt. Order that horizontal reservation will be given to the person/women from that category only to which he/she belongs. The percentage of hori zontal reservation for women was in creased from 20% to 30% vide an other Govt. Order dated 24-07-2006. As per advertisement, 5 vacancies out of total 33 vacancies were reserved for Scheduled Caste Category candidates.

4. Learned counsel for the peti tioner Sri Manoj Tewari argued that since 30% horizontal reservation is available for the women category can didates, only two vacancies can be filled under Schedule Caste women category whereas the respondent no. 1 has recommended three candidates under this category. Contention of the petitioner is that horizontal reservation has to be accounted for against the category- wise reservation, which is it self vertical in nature. According to Mr. Manoj Tewari selection of three Scheduled Caste women candidates amounts to excessive reservation, which is not permissible under the law. In support of his arguments Mr. Manoj Tewari referred and relied on para-graph-8 of a judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Rajesh Kumar Daria us. Rajasthan Public Service Commission and others reported in (2007) 8 S. C. C. , 785 which is repro duced hereunder :

"8. We may also refer to two re lated aspects before considering the facts of this case. The first is about the description of horizontal reservation. For example, if there are 200 vacancies and 15% is the vertical reservation for SC and 30% is the horizontal reservation for women, the proper description of the number of posts reserved for SC, sh