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"6. Reservation.- Reservation for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Categories shall be in accordance with the Act and the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Physically Handicapped, Dependents of Freedom Fighters and Ex-Servicemen) Act, 1993, as amended from time to time, and the orders of the Government in force at the time of the recruitment. The reservation of National/State level sportsmen shall be in accordance with the Government orders in force at the time of recruitment. It is further provided that physically handicapped persons will not be eligible for police services.

29. Savings.- Nothing in these rules shall affect reservations and other concessions required to be provided for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other special categories of persons in accordance with the orders of the Government issued from time to time in this regard."

The U.P. Public Services (Reservation for Physically Handicapped, Dependants of Freedom Fighter and Ex-Servicemen) Act, 1993 (U.P. Act 4 of 1993) provides for special horizontal reservation to three class of aspirants (i) physically handicapped persons (ii) dependants of freedom fighters (iii) ex-servicemen. The three classes have been defined in the Act, 1993. Section 3 provides the percentage of vacancies to be reserved for such class. Horizontal reservation is provided at the stage of direct recruitment. Sub section (3) would clarify that the reservations would be horizontal by making adjustment of such candidates in their respective category i.e. OC, OBC, SC, ST. Sub-clause (3) of Section 3 is extracted:-

". . . . .all reservations are not of the same nature. There are two types of reservations, which may, for the sake of convenience, be referred to as 'vertical reservations' and 'horizontal reservations.' The reservations in favour of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes ((under Article 16(4)) may be called vertical reservations whereas reservations in favour of physically handicapped (under Cl. (1) of Art. 16) can be referred to as horizontal reservations. Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations - what is called interlocking reservations. To be more precise, suppose 3% of the vacancies are reserved in favour of physically handicapped persons; this would be a reservation relatable to Cl. (1) of Art. 16. The persons selected against the quota will be placed in that quota by making necessary adjustments; similarly, if he belongs to open competition (OC) category, he will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments. Even after providing for these horizontal reservations, the percentage of reservations in favour of backward class of citizens remains - and should remain - the same."

5. Before examining whether the reservation provision relating to women, had been correctly applied, it will be advantageous to refer to the nature of horizontal reservation and the manner of its application. In Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992 Supp (3) SCC 217), the principle of horizontal reservation was explained thus (para 812) : 1992 AIR SCW 3682 ". . . . .all reservations are not of the same nature. There are two types of reservations, which may, for the sake of convenience, be referred to as 'vertical reservations' and 'horizontal reservations.' The reservations in favour of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes ((under Article 16(4)) may be called vertical reservations whereas reservations in favour of physically handicapped (under Cl. (1) of Art. 16) can be referred to as horizontal reservations. Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations - what is called interlocking reservations. To be more precise, suppose 3% of the vacancies are reserved in favour of physically handicapped persons; this would be a reservation relatable to Cl. (1) of Art. 16. The persons selected against the quota will be placed in that quota by making necessary adjustments; similarly, if he belongs to open competition (OC) category, he will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments. Even after providing for these horizontal reservations, the percentage of reservations in favour of backward class of citizens remains - and should remain - the same."