IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition ( S/ S) No. 2190 of 2023 Amit Kumar & Others … Petitioners Versus State of Uttarakhand & Others … Respondents With Writ Petition ( S/ S) No. 175 of 2024 Mr. T.A. Khan, Senior Advocate, for the petitioners.

Mr. Ganesh Datt Kandpal, Deputy AG, with Mr. Rajeev Singh Bisht, Additional CSC, for the State.

Ms. Menka Tripathi, Advocate, for the Public Service Commission.

Mr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Advocate, for the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan.

J U D G M E N T Hon’ble Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J.

Petitioners belong to Scheduled Caste category, who responded to an advertisement, issued by Uttarakhand Public Service Tribunal for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) in Irrigation Department. In this writ petition, petitioners have challenged the said advertisement, issued on 14.10.2023, on the ground that sufficient number of vacancies is not made available for persons belonging to Scheduled Caste category. The reliefs sought in WPSS No. 2190 of 2023 are as under:

“I. To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of “Certiorari” quashing the advertisement bearing no. A-I/JE(DR)/E-4/2023- 23, dated 14.10.2023, issued by the respondent no. 5 (Annexure 1 to the Writ Petition).

II. To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of “Mandamus” commanding the respondents no. 1 to 4 to send supplementary requisition to the respondent no. 5 and add sufficient numbers of vacancies belonging to “scheduled caste category” for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil), by applying correct roaster system and by applying the reservation at the rate of 19% against the existing vacancies in their respective departments.

III. To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of “Mandamus” directing the respondent no. 5 to add the additional number of vacancies which are to be supplied by the departments of respondents no. 1 to 4, in the advertisement bearing no. A-I/JE(DR)/E-4/2023- 23, dated 14.10.2023 for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) for the candidates belonging to “Scheduled Caste” category.”

2. Learned State Counsel by referring to Entry No. 1 of the Tabular chart given in Paragraph No. 6 of the counter affidavit, filed by Jai Lal Sharma, Joint Secretary, on behalf of respondent no. 1, submits that originally there were 815 sanctioned post of Junior Engineer (Civil) in Irrigation Department, however after restructuring in 2023, the number of sanctioned post of Junior Engineer (Civil) was reduced to 596, as is reflected at Entry No. 4 of the said chart. He submits that due to restructuring, the number of posts reserved for persons belonging to Scheduled Caste category was reduced from 155 to 113. He refers to para 12 of the said counter affidavit for contending that since 115 persons belonging to Scheduled Caste category are already serving as Junior Engineer (Civil) in Irrigation Department, as against 113 posts reserved for them, therefore, no post reserved for Scheduled Caste category was indicated as reserved in the requisition sent to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission. Para 12 of the counter affidavit is extracted below:

“12. That the contents of para no. 8 of writ petition need no comments. That, the contents of Para 9 of writ petition are wrong hence denied. It is pertinent to mention here that there is no illegality in sending the requisition of vacant posts to Uttarakhand Public Service commission. As explained above in government letter dated 09.02.2023 total approved posts of junior engineer civil including the requisition of 75 posts in relation to the posts working/available from the first day of recruitment year 2023-24 is 521+75 = 596. Since there are already 115 no. of working posts for SC category against 113 no. of reserved posts for SC category as per rules, there are no vacant posts for Scheduled Caste Category and Schedule Tribe category against the total approved posts and there is no intention of depriving candidates belonging to the Schedule Caste category from the recruitment