S SUYAM PRAKASAM Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner has filed the writ petition under the premises that his daughter was an applicant to the post of Village Administrative Officer for which applications were called for by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission by publishing a notification in "The Hindu" dated 21.07.2010,. In that notification, it was indicated that the post of Village Administrative Officer in the Tamil Nadu Ministerial Service would have 1576 vacancies and the short fall vacancies in respect of SC/ST communities were identified as 1077. The Petitioner belongs to Backward Class Community and his daughter had applied for the said post pursuant to the advertisement. He has come forward with the present writ petition challenging the said advertisement on the ground that 1077 posts of Village Administrative Officer notified as shortfall vacancies earmarked for SC/ST communities is illegal and contrary to ground reality.

(2.) In the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, the Petitioner has contended that there is no such shortfall vacancies in respect of SC/ST communities and for each year, the vacancies were filled up with due reservation meant for those communities. Therefore, any excess vacancies for accommodating candidates from SC/ST communities will be unconstitutional.

(3.) In the present case, it must be noted that the Government is empowered to fill up posts exclusively for SC/ST communities, which is otherwise known as catch up rule/backlog vacancies. By the 81st amendment made to the Constitution, Article 16(4-B) has been introduced, which reads as follows: