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18. It is also the stand of the Respondent that the 'backlog vacancies' as defined in Note-2 of Chapter-5 of DOPT Brochure, 2016 are those vacancies which were earmarked reserved for that category in an earlier recruitment year but remained unfilled in the earlier recruitment attempt on account of non-availability of suitable candidates belonging to that category and are still lying unfilled. In the years 2016-2017 despite advertising 91 vacancies for SCs/STs, interviews were held for 18 posts and none was found suitable. Thus, only these 18 vacancies can be termed as backlog vacancies as defined in the Brochure, 2016. The recruitment process could not be completed on account of the judgement of the Allahabad High Court dated 07.04.2017 directing the Central Universities to apply department-wise rosters. The Respondent followed directives of UGC issued vide letter dated 19.07.2018 and postponed the recruitment process.

54. In response the University filed an additional affidavit and stated the following:

"2. These 80 posts which were reserved for SCs/ STs became 91 posts in the advertisement in 2016-2017. In the year 2016-17, these 91 posts were advertised for SC/ST categories and interviews were held for 18 posts and none was found suitable so declared NFS (Nobody Found Suitable) and hence, remained unfilled and thus, calculated as backlog. For the remaining posts, the interview never took place hence, it was not their case that they remain unfilled as suitable candidate were not available and as such they were not backlog vacancies.