HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition No.1204 of 2010 (M/S) Committee of Management Pantnagar. .…Petitioner Versus State of Uttarakhand & others ...Respondents Mr. J.C. Belwal, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. P.C. Bisht, Brief Holder for the State/respondent nos.1 to 4. Hon’ble V.K. Bist, J. Heard learned counsel for the parties. By means of this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 23.08.2008, 09.02.2009, 28.06.2010 passed by respondent no.5 and orders dated 22.06.2010 and 02.07.2010 passed by respondent no.3 by which petitioner has been directed to fill 6th post of lecturer from Scheduled Caste quota. Brief facts relevant to the controversy involved in the writ petition are that Intermediate Collage, Pantnagar (hereinafter referred to as the College) is a recognized and aided institution run by committee of management under the control of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar. Twelve posts of lecturers are sanctioned in the College. This is not in dispute that out of twelve posts of lecturer, six posts are to be filled by direct recruitment and remaining six posts by the Committee of 2 Management of the College through promotion. The respondent no.3 several times wrote to the petitioner to fill up the posts as per roaster as provided in the Government Order 31.08.2001. The said Government Order provides that first promotional post is to be filled from Schedule Caste candidate and second, third, fourth & fifth posts are to be filled by unreserved candidates and again sixth post has to be filled by Scheduled Caste candidate. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that Government Order No.1455/Karmik-2/2001 dated 31st August, 2001 issued by the Government of Uttarakhand provides reservation. In the said Government Order it is provided that 19% of promotional posts shall be reserved for the candidates of Scheduled Caste category. He submitted that one Ram Swaroop was promoted to the post of lecturer in the year 1991 under Scheduled Caste category, who is still working as lecturer in the College. He further submitted that in case direction issued by respondent nos.3 & 5 are followed and respondent no.6 is promoted as lecturer against Scheduled Caste Quota then 19% quota prescribed for the Scheduled Caste shall be exceeded. He also submitted that at present only six posts are to be filled by promotion by the management, out of which five posts are already filled in which one lecturer belongs to Scheduled Caste category. He argued that if sixth post is filled by Scheduled Caste candidate, in that event two posts out of six posts will be filled from Scheduled Caste category and thus 33% posts will be filled by the Scheduled Caste category candidates. 3 Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that on 2/4.04.2009 petitioner wrote to the Director, School Education, Uttarakhand and sought guidance in the matter. In the said letter the petitioner stated that out of six posts one post was already filled way back in the year 1999 and 16.6% promotional posts have already been filled. Now 0.14% posts are vacant and this 0.14% posts cannot be treated as one post. But no reply was received by the petitioner and sixth post could not be filled. He relied on Regulation 5(c) of Uttarakhand School Education Act, 2006 and argued that in any case sixth post cannot be given to Scheduled Caste category candidate. Argument of learned counsel for the petitioner is misconceived because while fixing a particular post at particular place in rota system, care has been taken that if quota, at a particular point of time is exceeded, the same is corrected at the time of filling of subsequent posts. For example, if first post is filled from Scheduled Caste category, then it cannot be said that 100% posts are filled from Schedule Caste category. Therefore, further provision has been made in the Government Order and it has been provided that second, third, fourth and fifth post shall be filled by general category candidates. It is true that quota can not be permitted to be exceeded but at the same time it has to be seen that rotation as fixed by the Government Order dated 31.08.2001 should be followed. Appointment/promotion cannot be made by exceeding the quota but this argument will not apply in the matter of rotation which is prescribed by 4 the Government Order dated 31.08.2001. All subsequent posts have to be filled by particular category candidate at the particular roaster point. There is no illegality in the same. Learned counsel for the petitioner further argued that once quota is complete, no further promotion can be made. In support of his argument he relied on paragraph 11 of the judgment of Hon’ble Apex Court reported in Ajit Singh Juneja & others vs. State of Punjab & others 1996(2) S.C.C.,715. Paragraph 11 of the judgment quoted below:- 11. “The Constitution Bench in R.K. Sabharwal has said in clear and unambiguous terms that after the quota is over and roster points are full, then the “running account” of roster shall stop and there is no question of promoting beyond the posts which had been reserved. In the said judgment it has been said in respect of members of Scheduled Castes that if they are appointed/promoted on their own merit, then such candidates shall not be counted towards the percentage of reservation fixed for them. On the basis of the same logic, whenever members of the Scheduled Castes are to be considered for promotion against posts which are not reserved for them, then they have to be selected on merit only. They cannot claim that as they had been promoted earlier from Grade ‘C’ to Grade ‘B’ on the basis of reservation and roster, in this process they have superseded the candidates belonging to the general category and even for promotion against general category posts in Grade ‘A’ the only requirement shall be satisfactory record of service”. Judgment cited by the learned counsel for the petitioner will not help him as in the present case it is undisputed fact that six posts are promotional posts, out of which one post 5 was filled by Scheduled Caste candidate and four posts were filled by general category candidates. Now sixth post is vacant and as per roaster sixth post is to be filled from Scheduled Caste category candidate. I do not find any infirmity in the orders passed by the respondents. Consequently, the writ petition is dismissed in limine. However, it is made clear that no coercive measure shall be taken against the petitioner by the respondents provided he complies with the direction issued by the District Education Officer, District-Udham Singh Nagar within a period of two months from today. Stay application no.5648 of 2010 also rejected. (V.K.Bist. J,) 15.07.2010 Arti 6