Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

The oral argument advanced by the Advocate General is backed by written submissions. He would contend by raising a preliminary objection that judicial propriety would demand, that, since a Division Bench of this Court in a petition being Writ-A No. 40695 of 2005 referred the matter to a larger Bench, inter alia, to determine "what should be mechanism for application of horizontal reservation in respect of various categories provided therein namely women, dependents of freedom fighter, physical handicapped etc. in the State of U.P.?", therefore, the hearing of the present petition be deferred.

The reason for reference, as noted by the Court, was necessitated primarily upon noticing that there being a conflict in the ratio laid down by a Division Bench in Rajeev Kumar vs. State of U.P. And others4, in so far, it lays down in paragraph 12 of the report that "the reservation has to be spread evenly for the representation of female category candidates to the extent of minimum of 20% in each category" which was a rule applicable in the State of Rajasthan providing reservation for women candidates, whereas, in the State of Uttar Pradesh, having regard to the judgments rendered earlier by other Division Benches and the Government Order applicable for the purpose of horizontal reservation, the matter was referred to a Larger Bench. In the opinion of the Court "the issue of application of horizontal reservation has been engaging the attention of this Court time and again, therefore, having regard to the provision of Act, 1993 and Government Orders issued in the matter of horizontal reservation being provided to various categories of persons, namely, women, dependents of freedom fighter, physical handicapped etc. may be resolved finally, in order to avoid further litigation, by the Larger Bench of this Court."

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.8

The Constitution Bench in Indira Shawney vs. Union of India11 explained the concept of vertical and horizontal reservation in paragraph 812:

812. 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 clause (1) of Article 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 clause (1) of Article 16. The persons selected against this quota will be placed in the appropriate category; if he belongs to SC category he 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. This is how these reservations are worked out in several States and there is no reason no to continue that procedure."