An OBC candidate is not exempt from the rigours of a cut off or last date prescribed in an advertisement or recruitment notice. The financial criteria fixed by the Union and State Governments for the purposes of identification of a creamy layer would have no favourable impact upon the eligibility of a candidate unless he also furnishes a certificate evidencing him as belonging to the OBC category as recognised and identified by the State.

Irshad Ali, J.

Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Addl. Chief Standing Counsel for the respondents.

2. By means of the present writ petition the petitioner has sought a writ of mandamus commanding the respondent no. 2 to consider the candidature of the petitioner for the appointment on the post of Police Constable PAC (Male) in pursuance to the notification issued on 29.12.2015.

3. Brief fact of the case is that in pursuance to the advertisement dated 29.12.2015 the petitioner applied under OBC male category against 28916 vacancies for the post of Police Constable and Constable PAC (Male) under non-creamy layer category. He claims that he fulfils the eligibility criteria prescribed under the advertisement. The application of the petitioner was registered under OBC non creamy layer category, bearing Registration No. 10200895436.

4. After submission of the application form, on 22.04.2016 the petitioner was called for physical test under OBC category and for the said purpose the petitioner was issued an admit card bearing roll no. 00014300.

5. The petitioner was declared passed in the physical test under the OBC category. On completion of the physical test on 29.07.2016 the respondents issued cut of marks for the verification of the documents and the last selected candidate under the OBC category obtained 398.23 marks. The petitioner has secured 401 marks under the OBC category, therefore, vide letter dated 17.08.2016 he was called for the verification of the documents.

6. On examination of the documents placed by the petitioner on 22.03.2017 at PAC Ground, Lucknow, it was found that the petitioner is having OBC Certificate issued for the purposes of employment under the Central Government Services. Therefore, the respondents informed the petitioner that his candidature cannot be considered under OBC category and his candidature will be considered under the General Category.

7. The submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that he submitted an application before the respondents but no decision whatsoever has been taken on his application and the matter has been kept pending to a long spell of time. Therefore, the act and action of the respondents his wholly illegal and arbitrary in nature. He next submitted that the petitioner has applied under OBC category and in case he has submitted the certificate of OBC issued by the competent authority for the purposes of the Central Government Services even then the candidature of the petitioner cannot be ignored from consideration.

8. Per contra learned Addl. Chief Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents submitted that under the advertisement dated 29.12.2015, under note (2) of clause 5.3 it has specifically been provided that for the grant of reservation under U.P. Public Service (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Act, 1994 (as amended from time to time) under Schedule-2 no reservation is provided to the Other Backward Classes Category candidate who comes under creamy layer, and caste certificate issued under Form-1 (Praroop-1) issued till 1st April, 2015 or thereafter but not later than the last date for submission of the application form i.e. 17.02.2016 shall be taken into consideration.

9. He further submitted that the petitioner has not submitted any OBC Certificate as per the notification issued on 29.12.2015. Therefore, his candidature is not liable to be considered under OBC category. The petitioner has been issued OBC certificate, which is recognized for the purposes of the employment under the Central Government. Therefore, the selection committee has rightly changed the category of the petitioner from OBC Category to General Category candidate.

10. Learned Addl. Chief Standing Counsel has placed reliance upon the decision of the Full Bench of this Court dated 05.12.2016 in Special Appeal No. 762 of 2016, wherein the controversy in this regard came for consideration, and it has been held th