AMITAVA LALA,J. - (1.) THIS writ petition has been filed by the petitioner to get a writ or direction issued in the nature of Certiorari to quash the entire result declared by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission, Allahabad for Combined State/Upper Subordinate Preliminary Examination, 2007.
(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, pursuant to advertisement No. A-4/E-1/2007 issued by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission, Allahabad for Combined State/Upper Subordinate Preliminary Examination, 2007, he appeared in the preliminary examination with roll no. 100039 but was declared unsuccessful having secured 342.5 marks being candidate of general category whereas the candidates of reserved categories having secured less marks than the petitioner have been declared successful, as the Commission has approved different minimum cut off marks for different categories, such as 347.25 for General, 345.50 for O.B.C. and 308.75 for S.C. Main grievance of the petitioner is that benefit of reservation has been extended to the reserved category candidates by prescribing different cut off marks for different categories in respect of such preliminary examination. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner contended before this Court that the U.P. Direct Recruitment through Public Service Commission Preliminary Examination Rules, 1986 (for short the Rules) defines the terms "Preliminary Examination" under sub-rule (vi) of Rule 2 and means screening test to be conducted by the Commission with the purpose of finding out suitable candidates for admission to the main examination or interview. Therefore, it is crystal clear that the preliminary examination is not part of main examination and it is just a screening test for the purposes of determining suitability of candidates for appearing in the main examination and hence, benefit of reservation cannot be extended in the preliminary examination. He further contended that selection of a candidate for the public employment is made wholly on the basis of marks obtained in the main examination and not in the preliminary examination, therefore, for the purposes of determining respective merits of the candidates, marks obtained in the preliminary examination are not counted for the marks obtained in the main examination. In support of his contentions, learned counsel for the petitioner placed strong reliance on a recent judgement of Supreme Court reported in (2009) 5 SCC 1) Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission vs. Baloji Badhavath and others.
(3.) ON the other hand, learned counsel appearing for Public Service Commission contended before this Court that the petitioner has been rightly declared unsuccessful to appear in the main examination as he has secured less marks than the last qualified candidate of his category. The sole purpose of the preliminary examination is to screen out suitable candidates from amongst a large number of candidates who apply for the advertised posts and the suitable candidates are those who secure minimum number of marks prescribed by the Commission for their category. As per the provisions of The Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation For Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 (for short the Act), with a view to ensure quota of different categories provided by the State Government in different services of the State, the Commission declares the results of preliminary examinations category wise in the ratio of 1 : 18 (vacancy : candidates) so that sufficient number of candidates of different categories could be available to fill up their quota at the stage of final selection. He further contended that the Commission has declared the result of said preliminary examinations after following all the relevant rules and there is no irregularity or illegality in the declaration of the result of preliminary examination.;