THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO.16005 OF 2005 DATED: 26-12-2006 Between: Siddani Guravaiah .. Petitioner and Revenue Divisional Officer, Kandukur (PO), Prakasam District. .. Respondent THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU W.P.NO.16005 OF 2005 Order: This writ petition is filed seeking a mandamus declaring the notification issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Kandukur vide RC.F/974/2005 dated 07-05-2005, as arbitrary and illegal. It appears, under the impugned notification, applications were invited from the candidates belonging to General Category for filling-up the vacancy of Fair Price Shop Dealer of Potlapadu village, Kurichedu Mandal, Kandukur Division. It is the case of the petitioner that the said vacancy ought to have been reserved for B.C. candidates since sufficient number of General Category candidates have already been appointed and huge number of backlog vacancies to be filled up against B.C. candidates are lying vacant. Therefore, the impugned notification is arbitrary and illegal. It is the contention of the petitioner that there are 25 Fair Price Shops under Public Distribution System in Kurichedu Mandal. Out of the said 25 shops, dealership of 14 shops is on permanent basis. The remaining 11 shops are temporary shops situated at Gangavaram, Bayyavaram, Potlapadu, Peddavaram, Kurichedu, Kalluru, Avulamanda, Veerayyapalem, N.S.Puram, V.Y.Colony and Nachapuram. Out of 25 shops (inclusive of permanent and temporary), 22 shops are allotted to General Category candidates. Not even a single shop is reserved for B.C. candidates though 25% was reserved to B.C. candidates as per G.O.Ms.No.53. Hence the notification issued is not in consonance with G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2003. The respondent filed a detailed counter stating that the total number of Fair Price Shops in Kandukur Division is 715. Out of these shops, 574 shops were filled with permanent dealers and remaining 141 shops are run by temporary/ in-charge dealers. The reservation observed in respect of 574 permanent shops is as follows:- Sl. No. Category Percentage of reservation prescribed by Government at Division Level The reservation has to be observed in the division as per Government Orders Cate- gory wise now appoint- ed Balance to be filled up 1 Scheduled Caste 15% 107 101 6 2 Schedule Tribe 6% 43 10 33 3 Backward Classes 25% 179 86 93 4 Physically Handicapped 3% 21 14 7 5 General Category 51% 365 363 2 Total 715 574 141 It is further stated in the counter that according to para 7 of G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2003, reservation for women in allotment of Fair Price Shops shall be fixed at 30% and it is being followed while filling up the remaining vacancies, which are run by temporary/in-charge dealers. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner that the reservation system is not being followed as required under G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2005 is not correct. Therefore, the writ petition is liable to be dismissed. There is no necessity to go into all the details. The statement as noticed above itself would indicate that as many as 93 vacancies are yet to be filled up in the category of Backward Classes, whereas in the General Category there are only two vacancies required to be filled up in the entire division. Further, the assertions made by the petitioner in the affidavit at paras 4 and 6 are not denied. It is simply stated that 19 shops were filled up on permanent basis i.e. SC-4, ST-1, BC-1, Minorities-1 and OC-12 and the remaining 6 shops will have to be filled up duly observing the rule of reservation in accordance with G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2003. This statement of the respondent seems to be not correct. The statement as noticed above would clearly indicate that the backlog vacancies in the Backward Classes are huge in number. They require to be given preference to that of General Category for the purpose of following the rule of reservation as per G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2003. However, this Court entertained a doubt as to the exact population of the village, which could be one of the criteria for reserving the vacancy for General Category, and the learned Government Pleader was directed to get the information for the purpose of consideration as to whether the authorities have reasonably considered for reserving this vacancy to the General Category. The learned Government Pleader, when the matter reached in the morning and in the afternoon, stated that he is not able to get the information as to the exact population of the village. For all the above reasons, I deem it appropriate that the vacancy that is notified under the impugned notification requires to be considered for being reserved for B.C. Candidates since 93 Backlog Vacancies are available, to give effect to G.O.Ms.No.53 dated 06-10-2003. In view of the above, the impugned notification is set aside and the respondent is directed to re-consider the matter for notifying the vacancy for B.C. candidates. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of. No order as to costs. ____​__________ C.V. RAMULU, J 26-12-2006. IBL