Sunaina Delu v. State Of Punjab And Others

- 1IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: 09.01.2025 Sunaina Delu ....Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab and others

...Respondents

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AMAN CHAUDHARY ***** Present:- Mr. Jimmy Singla, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Arun Gupta, DAG, Punjab.

***** AMAN CHAUDHARY, J. (ORAL) 1.

Prayer made in the present petition is for quashing the provisional merit list of English Teachers (Master Cadre), whereby the said post as well as that of Agriculture Development Officer was advertised. The issue has already been decided in a batch of petitions by the Division Bench of this Court in Sikander Singh and others vs. State of Punjab and others, CWP-4264-2021, on 14.10.2024, the relevant paras whereof read thus:- "52. A perusal of the above referred judgment shows that EWS reservation is vertical reservation and it is to be applied accordingly.

53. Reference at this stage can further be made to a judgment of Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India in a case of Rajesh Kumar Daria vs. Rajasthan Public Service Commission and others, 2007 (4) SCT 99, wherein Hon'ble the Supreme Court has held that the Selection Process adopted by RPSC was contrary to the reservation contained in Rule 9 (3) of the Service Rule. The relevant portion of the judgment reads as under:- "5. Before examining whether the reservation provision relating to women, had been correctly applied, it will be advantageous to refer to the nature of horizontal reservation and the manner of its application. In Indra

- 2Sawhney vs. Union of India [1992 Supp.(3) SCC 217], the principle of horizontal reservation was explained thus (Pr.812) :

"...all reservations are not of the same nature. There are two types of reservations, which may, for the sake of convenience, be referred to as 'vertical reservations' and 'horizontal reservations'. The reservations in favour of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes [(under Article 16(4)] may be called vertical reservations whereas reservations in favour of physically handicapped (under clause (1) of Article 16] can be referred to as horizontal reservations.

Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations - what is called interlocking reservations. To be more precise, suppose 3% of the vacancies are reserved in favour of physically handicapped persons; this would be a reservation relatable to clause (1) of Article 16. The persons selected against the quota will be placed in that quota by making necessary adjustments; similarly, if he belongs to open competition (OC) category, he will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments. Even after providing for these horizontal reservations, the percentage of reservations in favour of backward class of citizens remains - and should remain - the same." A special provision for women made under Article 15(3), in respect of employment, is a special reservation as contrasted from the social reservation under Article 16(4).

The method of implementing special reservation, which is a horizontal reservation, cutting across vertical reservations, was explained by this Court in Anil Kumar Gupta vs. State of U.P. [1995 (5) SCC 173] thus : "...The proper and correct course is to first fill up the Open Competition quota (50%) on the basis of merit; then fill up each of the social reservation quotas, i.e., S.C., S.T. and B.C; the third step would be to find out how many candidates belonging to special reservations have been selected on the above basis. If the quota fixed for horizontal reservations is already satisfied - in case it is an overall horizontal reservation - no further question arises.

But if it is not so satisfied, the requisite number of special reservation candidates shall have to be taken and adjusted/accommodated against their respective social reservation categories by deleting the corresponding number of candidates therefrom.

- 3of compartmentalized horizontal reservation, then the process of verification and adjustment/accommodation as stated above should be applied separately to each of the vertical reservations. In such a case, the reservation of fifteen percent in favour of special categories, overall, may be satisfied or may not be satisfied.)

6. We may also refer to two related 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, should be : "For SC : 30 posts, of which 9 posts are for women". We find that many a time this is wrongly described thus : "For SC : 21 posts for men and 9 posts for women, in all 30 posts". Obviously, there is, and there can be, no reservation category of 'male' or 'men'.

7. The second relates to the difference between the nature of vertical reservation and horizontal reservation. Social reservations in favour of SC, ST and OBC under Article 16(4) are 'vertical reservations'. Special reservations in favour of physically handicapped, women etc., under Articles 16(1) or 15(3) are 'horizontal reservations'. Where a vertical reservation is made in favour of a backward class under Article 16(4), the candidates belonging to such backward class, may compete for non-reserved posts and if they are appointed to the non-reserved posts on their own merit, their numbers will not be counted against the quota reserved for the respective backward class.

Therefore, if the number of SC candidates, who by their own merit, get selected to open competition vacancies, equals or even exceeds the percentage of posts reserved for SC candidates, it cannot be said the reservation quota for SCs has been filled. The entire reservation quota will be intact and available in addition to those selected under Open Competition category. [Vide - Indira Sawhney (Supra), R. K. Sabharwal vs. State of Punjab (1995 (2) SCC 745), Union of India vs.

(6) SCC 684 and Ritesh R. Sah vs. Dr. Y. L. Yamul (1996

(3) SCC 253)]. But the aforesaid principle applicable to vertical (social) reservations will not apply to horizontal (special) reservations. Where a special reservation for women is provided within the social reservation for Scheduled Castes, the proper procedure is first to fill up

- 4the quota for scheduled castes in order of merit and then find out the number of candidates among them who belong to the special reservation group of 'Scheduled Castes-Women'. If the number of women in such list is equal to or more than the number of special reservation quota, then there is no need for further selection towards the special reservation quota. Only if there is any shortfall, the requisite number of scheduled caste women shall have to be taken by deleting the corresponding number of candidates from the bottom of the list relating to Scheduled Castes. To this extent, horizontal (special) reservation differs from vertical (social) reservation. Thus women selected on merit within the vertical reservation quota will be counted against the horizontal reservation for women. Let us illustrate by an example:

If 19 posts are reserved for SCs (of which the quota for women is four), 19 SC candidates shall have to be first listed in accordance with merit, from out of the successful eligible candidates. If such list of 19 candidates contains four SC women candidates, then there is no need to disturb the list by including any further SC women candidate. On the other hand, if the list of 19 SC candidates contains only two woman candidates, then the next two SC woman candidates in accordance with merit, will have to be included in the list and corresponding number of candidates from the bottom of such list shall have to be deleted, so as to ensure that the final 19 selected SC candidates contain four women SC candidates. [But if the list of 19 SC candidates contains more than four women candidates, selected on own merit, all of them will continue in the list and there is no question of deleting the excess women candidate on the ground that 'SC-women' have been selected in excess of the prescribed internal quota of four.]

9. In this case, the number of candidates to be selected under general category (open competition), were 59, out of which 11 were earmarked for women. When the first 59 from among the 261 successful candidates were taken and listed as per merit, it contained 11 women candidates, which was equal to the quota for 'General Category - Women'. There was thus no need for any further selection of woman candidates under the special reservation for women. But what RPSC did was to take only the first 48 candidates in the order of merit (which contained 11

- 5women) and thereafter, fill the next 11 posts under the general category with woman candidates. As a result, we find that among 59 general category candidates in all 22 women have been selected consisting of eleven women candidates selected on their own merit (candidates at Sl.Nos.2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 19, 21, 25, 31, 35 & 41 of the Selection List) and another eleven (candidates at Sl.Nos.54, 61, 62, 63, 66, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79 & 80 of the Selection List) included under reservation quota for 'General Category-Women'. This is clearly impermissible. The process of selections made by RPSC amounts to treating the 20% reservation for women as a vertical reservation, instead of being a horizontal reservation within the vertical reservation.

10. Similarly, we find that in regard to 24 posts for OBC, 19 candidates were selected by RPSC in accordance with merit from among OBC candidates which included three woman candidates. Thereafter, another five women were selected under the category of 'OBC - Women', instead of adding only two which was the shortfall. Thus there were in all 8 women candidates, among the 24 OBC candidates found in the Selection List. The proper course was to list 24 OBC candidates as per the merit and then find out number of woman candidates among them, and only fill the shortfall to make up the quota of five for woman.

11. The appellants' grievance that the selection process adopted by RPSC was contrary to the reservations policy contained in Rule 9(3) is justified. But the question is whether the entire selection should be set aside and whether all appellants should be granted relief. On completion of the selection process, 97 candidates were appointed in the year 2002 and have been serving as Judicial Officers for more than five years. There has also been a subsequent selection and appointments in the year 2005. Further all the selected candidates are not impleaded as parties. Even from among the original ten writ petitioners, only seven are before us. On the facts and circumstances, we do not propose to disturb the selection list dated 30.12.2001 or interfere with the appointments already made in pursuance of it.

We will only consider whether the appellants before us are entitled to relief. We find that even if the selection list had been prepared by applying horizontal reservation properly, only the appellant (Rajesh Kumar Daria) in this appeal, and appellant Nos.

- 6Soni and Sunil Kumar Gupta) will get selected. The other appellants were not eligible to be selected."

54. A perusal of the above judgment shows that Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India has explained the vertical as well as horizontal reservation and its application.

55. In view of the above mentioned judgments passed by Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India, we are of the view that the action of the State is in violation of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

56. Accordingly, the present petitions are allowed. The category- wise merit lists dated 17.07.2020 for the General Category (Code No. 71) and Economically Weaker Section Category (Category Code No. 88) are quashed. Clause 8 of the office memorandum dated 30.10.2020 along with clarification/instructions issued on 18.03.2021, are also set aside.

57. The State is directed to reframe/re-cast the merit list for the appointment to the post of Agriculture Development Officer, by including the petitioners belonging to EWS Category on the basis of their merit and not on account of reservation.

58. It is further clarified that EWS candidates who are selected on the basis of merit and not on account of reservation, are not to be counted towards the quota meant for reservation.

59. All the pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of." 2.

Learned State counsel is unable to controvert the factual position and draw out any distinctive aspects in the aforementioned judgment or cite any contrary law.

3.

Accordingly, the present petition is disposed of in terms of the judgment passed in Sikander Singh (supra).

(AMAN CHAUDHARY) JUDGE 09.01.2025 Hemant Whether speaking/reasoned :

Yes / No Whether reportable :

Yes / No