Delhi Higher Judicial Service 2022: Delhi High Court dismisses candidate's plea seeking appointment against unfilled SC/ST seats

The Delhi High Court recently dismissed a petition by a candidate seeking appointment against the unfilled seats reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) persons in the Delhi Higher Judicial Service 2022 (DHJS) by de-reserving them [Rabindra Tiwary v Lt. Governor, Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Anr]..A division bench of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan said that the petitioner does not have any indefeasible right to be appointed to the DHJS and cannot claim, as a matter of right, that the vacancies reserved for SC/ST candidates be de-reserved.“We are unable to accept that any order or direction is required to be issued to the respondents for undertaking any exercise for de-reservation of vacancies reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes /Scheduled Tribes,” the Court said.The court also rejected the petitioner’s contention that he is entitled to be considered for appointment as he belongs to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) because the advertisement did not contain any such reservation for EWS category..A candidate named Rabindra Tiwary had approached the court demanding that he be appointed as a Judicial Officer at the DHJS by creating a supernumerary vacancy.Tiwary further prayed that directions be issued to the respondents to de-reserve the vacancies reserved for candidates belonging to SC/ST by amending the advertisement published on February 24, 2022 issued for inviting applications and he be considered for appointment as a person belonging to the EWS. Alternatively, he demanded that the advertisement for DHJS Exam-2022 be set aside..After considering the arguments, the bench said that the vacancies, as advertised by the notification, cannot be increased by diverting vacancies earmarked for the reserved category.The court said that in the event any such de-reservation of reserved vacancies is considered necessary by the respondents, on account of the same remaining unfilled over a long period of time for want of the candidates meeting the qualifying criteria, the respondents may undertake the exercise for de-reserving such vacancies.“In the event any such vacancies are de-reserved, the same would be available for being filled pursuant to the selection exercise conducted in the future. In any view, such vacancies cannot be made available for the selection process that commenced pursuant to the impugned advertisement.”The court, therefore, concluded that the petition was without merit and dismissed it..Senior Advocate Ajit Kumar Sinha along with advocates Niraj Kumar Mishra, Manoj Jha and Parul appeared for the petitioner.The Lieutenant Governor was represented through Standing Counsel Avnish Ahlawat along with advocates Nitesh Kumar Singh, Laavanya Kaushik and Aliza Alam.Respondent No. 2 was represented through advocates Dr Amit George, Rayadurgam Bharati, Arkaneil Bhaumik, Amol Acharya and Piyo Harold Jaimon. .[Read Order]