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Judgment Intelligence
Petition DismissedShravan Singh & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan & Anr.
2025:RJ-JD:14477-DB
D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 745/2023
- Court
- Rajasthan High Court
- Date of Decision
- 18 March 2025
- Bench
- Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Munnuri Laxman
- Relevant Acts & Sections
- Constitution of India — Article 226; Rajasthan Civil Services (Absorption of Ex-Servicemen) Rules, 1988 — Rule 2(3), as substituted by notification dated 07.12.2022
Final Outcome
Writ petition dismissed (para 22). The challenge to substituted Rule 2(3) of the 1988 Rules and the matching clause of the advertisement of 16.12.2022 failed, as horizontal reservation across all categories was held permissible (para 21).
Key holdings
- Category-wise ex-servicemen reservation under substituted Rule 2(3) of the 1988 Rules was not shown to be arbitrary or contrary to the Constitution or any law (paras 13, 20).
- Saurav Yadav and Ramnaresh deal with migration of meritorious candidates in horizontal reservation, not with whether a quota must be vertical (paras 16, 19).
- Vertical and horizontal reservations are not rigid slots; the open category is open to all on merit (paras 17-18).
- Horizontal reservation for ex-servicemen secures representation of ex-servicemen from SC, ST, OBC and other categories within each category (para 20).
- No mandamus lies to turn a permissible horizontal ex-servicemen quota into a vertical one (para 21).
Brief Facts
The petitioners, general-category ex-servicemen, wished to compete for Upper Primary School Teacher posts advertised on 16.12.2022, which reserved 12.5% of posts for ex-servicemen category-wise (paras 2-3). The substituted Rule 2(3) makes that reservation category-wise; unfilled vacancies are filled normally and an equal number carried forward to the next recruitment year, then lapsing (paras 4, 11-12). The earlier rule also adjusted ex-servicemen in their own category (paras 9-10). The petitioners sought a vertical quota, so that the most meritorious ex-servicemen are selected irrespective of category, relying on Ramnaresh (paras 5-6). The State answered that the amendment aligned the rule with Saurav Yadav and served representation of marginalised groups (para 7).
Court's Findings
The Bench found that the plea of manifest arbitrariness had no legs to stand on: the petitioners could not show how category-wise horizontal reservation for ex-servicemen offended the Constitution or any Act of the State (para 13). Their only support was Ramnaresh, which does not hold that ex-servicemen reservation can only be vertical (paras 14-15). Saurav Yadav resolved conflicting High Court views by applying the migration rule to horizontal reservation: a reserved-category candidate who earns a general-category seat on merit is not counted against the reserved quota (para 16). Ramnaresh followed it, and both treat reservations as no rigid slots that foreclose merit, the open category being open to all (paras 17-18). Those rulings concern the method of working out horizontal reservation, not whether ex-servicemen reservation must be vertical (para 19). Horizontal reservation for ex-servicemen, the Court explained, secures representation of ex-servicemen from different categories such as SC, ST and OBC: "Thus horizontal reservation is within the reservation provided for respective categories." (para 20). As horizontal reservation across all categories is permissible, the mandamus sought for a vertical quota could not issue (para 21).
Legal Principle
A State may provide reservation for ex-servicemen in direct recruitment as horizontal reservation worked out category-wise; no constitutional or statutory rule requires a separate vertical quota. Supreme Court rulings on migration in horizontal reservation, such as Saurav Yadav and Ramnaresh, govern how it is applied, not its form (paras 19-21).
Precedents Relied Upon
- Ramnaresh @ Rinku Kushwah & Ors. v. State of Madhya Pradesh & Ors. AIR 2024 SC 4252
Relied on by the petitioners; held to follow Saurav Yadav on the methodology of horizontal reservation (reservations are not rigid slots and the open category is open to all on merit) and not to lay down that ex-servicemen reservation must be vertical only and cannot be category-wise.
- Saurav Yadav & Ors. v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. (2021) 4 SCC 542
A reserved-category candidate entitled on own merit to the open or general category is selected there and not counted against the reserved quota, a principle applied to horizontal reservation as well; cited by the State and held not to be authority for the petitioners' claim to a vertical quota.
