RAJKUMAR Vs. GULHARGA UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) in this writ petition, the petitioners have questioned the legality of the notification issued by the gulbarga university established under the Provisions of the Karnataka state universities Act, 1976 ('the act' for short), inviting applications for selection for appointment to 35 teaching posts on the establishment of the university on the ground that out of 35 posts as many as 33 are reserved in favour of persons belonging to backward classes and only two posts are made available for general merit and therefore the reservation was violative of articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of india.

(2.) the brief facts of the case, stated in the petition, are these: the university has various departments such as kannada, english, urdu, marathi, etc. Each of the departments constitute a separate and distinct unit consisting of posts of lecturers, readers and professors in the respective subjects. The seniority of lecturers, readers and professors in each of the departments is maintained separately. The minimum condition of eligibility prescribed for the posts lecturers, readers and professors in each of the subjects is the master's degree in the concerned subject and therefore only persons possessing master's degree in the concerned subject are eligible for selection and appointment, subject to the possessing of other prescribed qualifications for the posts in any given subject. Having regard to the subject-wise requirement of the teaching posts, in certain subjects the number of posts available are only a few and in certain cases there is only a single post belonging to a particular category. The gulbarga university issued a notification on 9-8-1989 inviting applications for selection for appointment to as many as 35 posts. The relevant portion of the notification reads: "gulbarga university, gulbarga No. Gug.adm.est(t) administrative office, 1989-90. Jnana ganga, gulbarga - 585 106, dt: 9-8-1989. Notification applications in the prescribed form in eight sets are invited from qualified candidates of Indian nationality for the following posts in the gulbarga university. The applications together with necessary documents should reach the registrar, gulbarga university, gulbarga-585 106, by registered post ack. Due on or before 15th september, 1989. Reservation to sc/st and other backward classes have been made in accordance with the government order issued from time to time and also in accordance with the Provisions of the Karnataka state universities Act, 1976. 1. For vacancies classified as pertaining to sc/st candidates only, candidates of other categories are not eligible to apply. 2. Candidates who have already applied for the posts in response to earlier notification, should apply afresh. Their earlier applications will not be considered. Any clarification regarding the advertisements may be had from the registrar, gulbarga university, gulbarga. The details of posts are as under. The number of post(s) in each subject and the category for which they are reserved is shown against each. <FRM>JUDGEMENT_439_KANTLJ4_1990Html1.htm</FRM> as may be seen from the above notification, out of the 35 posts, only 2 posts are made available for general merit and as many as 33 posts arc reserved mostly in favour of persons belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. As a result, several eligible persons including the petitioners, who do not belong to the reserved category were unable to apply as the applications have been invited only from the reserved category. The petitioners therefore have questioned the legality and constitutional validity of the aforesaid notification.

(3.) the grounds on which the legality of the notification has been challenged, may be summarised thus: