De-reservation/ inter-changeabilty of posts reserved for SC/STs to OBCs cannot be done by appointing authority: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that changing vacant posts reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) category to Other Backward Classes category cannot be done by appointing authority [Mandeep Kumar and Ors v. U.T. Chandigarh and others]..A Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari held that such inter-changeability can be done only by the Department of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.“The interchangeability of the vacant unfilled posts of SC category may be possible due to not having eligible candidates by the department concerned but not by appointing authority," the judgment said..By way of background, the appeal pertained to inaction by the State of Punjab in filing up of vacancies of Elementary Trained Teachers (ETT) after the High Court there took it up suo motu. The vacancies were advertised by way of two separate advertisements but even then, 595 ETT posts in the SC/ST category remained unfilled. .The appellants applied for the post of ETT from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and thus sought “de-reservation/interchangeability” of the posts from the SC/ST category to OBC..The appellants made several representations to the Department of Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Minorities. These were rejected as the interchangeability of the posts was not permissible in light of Section 7 of the Punjab Schedule Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Service) Act..The Court noted that as per Section 7 of 2006 Act, dereservation for the reserved vacancy by the appointing authority is restricted. "The said dereservation may be possibly directed by the Department of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes if it is expedient in public interest after recording satisfaction for such de reservation,” the Court said..The top court noted that the letters returned by the Educational Department in favour of the appellants to the Department concerned are not of much relevance since they have not agreed on the request of interchangeability of the unfilled posts against the SC/ST category..Interchanging the reservations from the SC/ST to OBC category six years after the release of merit lists would be “wholly unjustified”, the Bench stated..The appeal was thus dismissed..Senior Advocate PS Patwalia appeared for the appellants. Advocate Karan Bharihoke appeared for the respondents..[Read Judgment]