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Kerala PSC appointments should be in units of 20: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a judgment of the Kerala High Court directing the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) to follow the rule of reservation in appointments in the State and subordinate services in the ratio of 50:50 for merit and quota candidates and the unit of appointment should be the number of vacancies reported.

A Bench of Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Markandey Katju allowed the appeal filed by the Nair Service Society (NSS) against the High Court judgment dated May 23, 2008.

Writing the judgment, Mr. Justice Katju said that as per the rules, a common rank list as per merit for all successful candidates in respect of selection to the vacancies notified by the PSC should be prepared and reservation should be applied with reference to units of 20.

The Bench said: “That is, the first 20 most meritorious candidates, that is, from Serial No. 1 to 20 in that common rank list should first be considered for the purpose of reservation. At that stage, candidates from serial No. 21 and below are not to be considered. Out of these 20 most meritorious candidates, the appointments have then to be made in accordance with Rule 14 [of the Kerala State and Subordinate Services Rules, 1958.]”

The Bench said “the Commission has advised appointments based on a unit of 20 for the last more than 30 years. The principle of reservation, rotation and sub-rotation are all applied based on this unit of 20.”

The Bench said “the High Court ought to have considered that the vacancies were reported to the Commission in various spells and filling up the turn of a community is a continuous process and the Commission cannot wait to advise reservation of a candidate till his turn arises for advice and keep the community turn unfilled or advise a candidate lower in rank retaining a candidate who is above him in the list by anticipating reporting of vacancies. In our opinion the correct interpretation of Rules 14 to 17 is that the Public Service Commission should adopt each batch of 20 candidates as a separate unit for the purpose of reservation and not take the entire select list as one unit.”

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