SAMRIDHI MAMGAIN Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition to seek a direction to the respondents to declare the petitioner successful in the preliminary examination undertaken by her under Roll No. 232576 for the post as provided at Sl. No. 1 (consolidated post) of the cut off list to permit her to participate in mains examination of Uttarakhand Combined State Civil / Upper Subordinate Services Examination, 2021. The petitioner also assails the Notification dtd. 6/2/2023, issued by the Uttarakhand Combined State Civil / Upper Subordinate Services Examination, in so far as it relates to the petitioner, whereby she has been excluded from the list of candidates, who have been declared eligible to take the mains examination.

(2.) The respondents advertised a large number of posts vide Notification dtd. 10/8/2021. The petitioner, who is a woman, domiciled in the State of Uttarakhand, offered her candidature. Under the recruitment process, a three tier procedure was stipulated by the respondents, namely, a preliminary examination; followed by a mains examination by those who meet the cut off fixed by the respondents in the preliminary examination, and; followed by an interview. The preliminary examination was held on 3/4/2022. The result of the preliminary examination was declared on 26/5/2022, in which 5351 candidates were declared as successful. Pertinently, the petitioner was not declared as successful, as a female domiciled in Uttarakhand, for whom reservation was provided to the extent of 30%. This was because the petitioner did not meet the cut off marks which were fixed as 78.649.

(3.) The reservation granted to women, domiciled in Uttarakhand, was challenged before this Court in Writ Petition (S/B) No. 355 of 2022. We passed an interim order, holding that reservation could not be limited only for women candidates domiciled in the State of Uttarakhand, and directed that such reservation for women should apply across the board, i.e., for all women whether, or not, they were domiciled in the State of Uttarakhand. There was another petition preferred before this Court, being Writ Petition (PIL) No. 133 of 2022, Satya Dev Tyagi Vs State of Uttarakhand and others. In pursuance of the orders passed in that petition, the respondents issued yet another cut off list. On this occasion, the petitioner's name was included in the female candidates declared successful in the preliminary examination.