TMI Blog1980 (11) TMI 171X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t higher category in the Central Secretariat Service above the Section Officers' Grade consists of Grade I posts. Recruitment to the Grade I posts are made under Rule 12 of the Central Secretariat Service Rules; vacancies are filled by the promotion of, inter alia, permanent officers of the Section officers' Grade who satisfy certain prescribed qualifications. For the purpose of such promotion a select list is prepared. The preparation of the select list is governed by the Central Secretariat Service (Promotion to Grade I Selection Grade) Regulations, 1964. The select list is to be prepared once every year. The names of eligible officers are arranged in a single list by the Department of Personnel Administrative Reforms in the Cabinet Secretariat in accordance with the field of selection determined by the Selection Committee. Pursuant to an Office Memorandum issued by the Department on 20th July, 1974, 15% and 7/12% of the promotion posts stand reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates respectively. The petitioners along with several other officials were included in the field of selection for the purpose of drawing up the select list for the year ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the twenty-seven vacancies for the year 1977 and upon such de-reservation the petitioners be considered for filling those twenty-seven vacancies. The reservation of vacancies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotion posts from class II to class I of Government services flows from the Department of Personnel Administrative Reforms Office Memorandum No. 10/41/73-Estt. (SCT), dated 20th July, 1974. Paragraph 2 of the Office Memorandum spells out how the vacancies should be filled up. The selection is made from among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe officers who are within the normal zone of consideration. If candidates qualifying on the basis of merit with due regard to seniority do not fill up all the reserved vacancies, those remaining unfilled are to be filled by selecting candidates of the two communities who are in the zone of consideration irrespective of merit but subject to their being considered fit for promotion. A select list is then prepared of all the selected officers, general as well as those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, arranged in the order of merit and seniority according to principles laid down by the Ministry of Home Aff ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion. No relief has been sought for quashing the Office Memorandum dated 20th July, 1974. No ground has been taken in the writ petitions assailing the validity of the Office Memorandum on the basis now pressed before us. We are of opinion that the courts should ordinarily insist on the parties being confined to their specific written pleadings and should not be permitted to deviate from them by way of modification or supplementation except through the well-known process of formally applying for amendment. We do not mean that justice should be available to only those who approach the court confined in a straight jacket. But there is a procedure known to the law, and long established by codified practice and good reason, for seeking amendment of the pleadings. If undue laxity and a too easy informality is permitted to enter the proceedings of a court it will not be long before a contemptuous familiarity assails its institutional dignity and ushers in chaos and confusion undermining its effectiveness. Like every public institution, the courts function in the security of public confidence, and public confidence resides most where institutional discipline prevails. Besides this, oral su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly when such a course becomes inevitable due to non- availability of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates for appointment against the reserved vacancies after having fully observed the procedure prescribed in this behalf and after applying relaxed standards in the case of such candidates. Once a decision has been taken to reserve vacancies for a backward class of citizens, the programming effected to that end should not be disturbed unless the avenues for fulfilling it have been explored and have failed. If the petitioners can succeed in showing that the provisions in the Central Secretariat Service Rules, and the consequent Regulations, providing for holding the limited departmental competitive examination are ultra vires and void and there is no evidence of any other appropriate arrangement for filling the reserved vacancies they may have a case for contending that as there is no prospect of finding suitable Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates for appointment to the reserved vacancies it is only reasonable that the Government should dereserve the vacancies in view of the prohibition against carrying them forward to the next year. That takes us then to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in 1979 operates prospectively only and cannot effect the twenty-seven vacancies to be filled in the Select List of 1977. The argument proceeds on the assumption that the Select List of 1977 must be completed during the year 1977. The submission is formed in fallacy. There is no requirement in law that the Select List pertaining to a particular year must be finalised within that year. It is open to the Government to complete the process of selection and finalise it after the expiry of that year. It seems that when the Government found that suitable candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were not available for inclusion in the field of selection, it decided to consider the advisability of adopting some other mode of filling the reserved vacancies. It appears that on 10th August. 1978 the Government stated in Parliament that as no Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe officers could be included in the field of consideration proposals for filling the vacancies through some special method had been taken up with the Union Public Service Commission. The Select List for 1977, which included already ninety-one names of officers appointed to the general category vac ..... 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