Hon’ble Vikram Nath, J.—Petitioners who claim to be eligible for appointment as Assistant Lecturers in Hindi and Physiotherapy have preferred this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, impleading (i) Union of India through Secretary, Department of Higher Education Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, (ii) The University Grants Commission (UGC), through its Secretary, 35, Firoze Shah Road, New Delhi, (iii) The Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission (UGC), 35 Firoze Shah Road, New Delhi, (iv) The Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi through its Registrar, (v) The Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and (iv) The Registrar (Admin.), Recruitment and Assessment Cell, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi as respondent Nos. 1 to 6 respectively for the following reliefs—

1. A writ order or direction in the nature of Certiorari by calling the record to quash the Rolling Advertisement No. 2 of 2016-2017 (Teaching and equivalent posts) dated 16.7.2016 (Annexure 3 to the Writ Petition) issued by the respondent No. 4 and the order dated 19.2.2008 issued by respondent No. 2 through respondent No. 3 (Annexure 10 to the Writ Petition); and the impugned clause No. 6(c) and clause No. 8 (a)(v) of the UGC Guidelines dated 25.8.2006 issued by the respondent No. 2. (amendment made vide Court order dated 9.1.2017).

2. A writ order or direction in the nature of Mandamus to command the respondent Nos. 1 to 6 to issue a fresh advertisement for teaching posts in BHU by treating each discipline/subject/department of BHU as a separate “Unit” for the purpose of application of rules of reservation in the matter of recruitment of teaching staff and to proceed with the selection process in a time bound manner as may be stipulated by this Hon’ble Court.

3. Any other writ order or direction, which this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper under the facts and circumstances of the present case.

4. To award the cost of writ petition.”

2. Banaras Hindu University (hereinafter referred to as BHU) a Central University constituted and established under a Central Act No. 16 of 1915 issued an advertisement being Rolling Advertisement No. 02/2016-2017, inviting applications for various teaching and equivalent posts in different departments of the University (Annexure 3 to the writ petition). Petitioner No. 1 claims to have applied for the post of Assistant Professor in respective discipline and petitioner No. 2 claims to be fully eligible for the post of Assistant Professor in respective discipline but could not apply for the same. The petitioners noticed that the reservation applied by the University was by way of treating the University as a ‘Unit’ and the posts of the Professor, Associate Professor, Reader and Assistant Professor as single cadre at each level in the University. According to the petitioners the reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes ought to have been applied by treating the posts of different levels in each subject/department as a ‘Unit’ and not the whole University as a ‘Unit’. After advertisement was published the petitioners alongwith other applicants submitted a representation to the Vice-Chancellor requesting to apply the reservation, treating each department as a ‘Unit’. This representation dated 25.7.2016 has been filed as Annexure 4 to the writ petition. The basis of such representation, according to the learned counsel for the petitioners, was the series of judgments delivered by the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court and accordingly they annexed copies of judgments alongwith their representations. The following judgments, according to the petitioners, clearly lay down that the reservation is to be applied in teaching positions department/subject-wise in the University.

(i) Dr. Suresh Chandra Verma and others v. The Chancellor, Nagpur University and others, AIR 1990 SC 2023.

(ii) State of U.P. v. Dr. Dina Nath Shukla, (1997) 9 SCC 662.

(ii) S