KANARAM YADAV Vs. R P S C

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners who belong to other Backward Class (for short OBC) seek to quash the Notification dated November 3, 1999 and November 12, 1999 whereby certain other castes were included in OBC. THE petitioners further pray that the Rajasthan State and Subordinate Services Combined Competitive Examination 1999 (for short the Examination 1999) be conducted without taking into consideration the aforesaid Notifications and the castes mentioned in these Notifications be not treated as OBC for the purpose of the Examination 1999 and any event which took place after June 15, 1999 which was the last date for submitting the application forms for appearing in the Examination 1999, be directed to be ignored.

(2.) FIRST as to the facts. Upon receiving requisition from the State Government for filling up determined and apportioned vacancies on various posts in different States and Subordinate Services, an advertisement came to be issued by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (for short the RPSC) on May 10, 1999 inviting applications from eligible persons for participating in the combined competitive examination to be held in two stages i. e. Preliminary Examination and Main Examination. It was provided in the advertisement that the application forms should reach the office of RPSC on or before June 15, 1999 and any applications received thereafter shall not be entertained. It was also stated in the advertisement that in no circumstances any candidate would be permitted to make any alteration in the entries made by him in the form. Pursuant to the advertisement several thousands of candidates submitted application forms and admission cards were issued to them. On November 3, 1999 and November 12, 1999 two Notifications were issued by the State Government whereby several castes came to be notified as Backward Classes and were included in the existing list of Backward Classes. On November 28, 1999 the Preliminary qualifying examination was held by the RPSC in pursuance to the aforesaid advertisement dated May 10, 1999. Thereafter the RPSC notified in Daily News paper on December 1, 1999 that those castes who were included in OBC vide Notifications dated November 3, 1999 and November 12, 1999 shall be treated as OBC for the purposes of Examination 1999 and all those candidates belonging to such castes who are presently included in the General category should submit a certificate regarding their being members of OBC before December 31, 1999 for taking benefit of reservation. Various other castes were also included in the list of OBC by the State Government vide Notification dated January 1, 2000 and January 10, 2000 and made request to RPSC to treat those castes as OBC vide communication dated Feb. 15, 2000. Consequently acting under the instructions of the State Government, the RPSC issued a memorandum on Feb. 16, 2000 including those castes in the list of OBC for the purpose of Examination 1999 provided they produce a certificate to that effect on or before April 29, 2000. Against this action of the State Government and RPSC that the petitioners have instituted the instant writ petition seeking the reliefs as indicated hereinabove.

(3.) FIRST limb of argument of Mr. Mahendra Singh, learned counsel for the petitioners is that developments made after the last date of submission of application forms could not have been taken into consideration and the candidates who submitted their forms as candidates of General Category could not have been permitted to alter their category into OBC. It was urged that an advertisement calling for applications constitutes a representation to the public and the authority who published the advertisement cannot act contrary to it. Act of changing the category from General to OBC after the last date of submission of application forms would affect the rights of similarly placed persons who could not have applied. Reliance was placed on Rekha Chaturvedi vs. University of Rajasthan (2), Ashok Kumar Sharma vs. Chander Shekhar (3), and Indra Bhan Singh Gujar vs. State of Rajasthan and another