Judgment

PATHAK, J.:- The petitioners have filed these writ petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenging the validity of the Central Secretariat Service (Amendment) Rules, 1979 and of the Regulations made consequent thereto by the Union of India for the purpose of holding a departmental competitive examination limited to candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for filling up vacancies reserved for those categories in Grade I of the Central Secretariat Service.

2. The petitioners are permanent Section Officers in the Central Secretariat Service and almost all of them are presently officiating as Under Secretaries in different Ministries. The next higher category in the Central Secretariat Service above the Section Officers Grade consists of Grade I Posts. Recruitment to the Grade I posts is made under R. 12 of the Central Secretariat Service Rules; vacancies are filled by the promotion of, inter alia, permanent officers of the Section Officers Grade who satisfy certain prescribed qualifications. For the purpose of such promotion a select list is prepared. The preparation of the select list is governed by the Central Secretariat Service (Promotion to Grade I & Selection Grade) Regulations, 1964. The select list is to be prepared once every year. The names of eligible officers are arranged in a single list by the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms in the Cabinet Secretariat in accordance with the field of selection determined by the Selection Committee. Pursuant to an Office Memorandum issued by the Department on 20th July, 1974, 15% and 71/2% of the promotion posts stand reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates respectively.

3. The petitioners along with several other officials were included in the field of selection for the purpose of drawing up the select list for the year 1977 for promotion to the Grade I posts. After an interview by the Selection Committee, ninety-one unreserved vacancies were filled from the first ninety-one candidates in the general category. Twenty-seven vacancies, reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, remained unfilled because no candidate belonging to those categories was found suitable for including in the field of selection. For the purpose of filling those reserved vacancies, the Government of India decided to hold a limited departmental competitive examination confined to members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Accordingly the President enacted the Central Secretariat Service (Amendment) Rules, 1979 whereby sub-rule (2a) was inserted below sub-rule (2) of Rule 12 of the Central Secretariat Service Rules. Regulations, described as the Central Secretariat Service Grade I (Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for filling the vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled, Tribes) Regulations. 1979 were promulgated providing for the holding of a limited departmental competitive examination, including a statement of the conditions of eligibility and indicating how the selection would take place on such examination. The first such examination was scheduled for July. 1979.

4. The case of the petitioners in the writ petitions is that the Government of India was not empowered to fill up the reserved vacancies by recourse to a departmental competitive examination for candidates from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and that instead the Government should have de-reserved the vacancies and made them available to candidates falling under the general category. Had that been done, the petitioners say, they would have been considered for promotion and having regard to their position in the select list, they allege that they stood a probable chance of being promoted to Grade I. The petitioners pray that the amendment of Rule 12, Central Secretariat Service Rules and the framing of regulations pursuant to the amendment should be declared ultra vires, and alternatively the amendment of t