The Karnataka High Court ruled that both recruitment notifications issued under the General Recruitment Rules and recruitment as regards backlog vacancies under the Special Recruitment Rules are covered by the State Government order stating that in the event that no qualified female applicants are available for a reserved category post, such posts may be filled by qualified male candidates of the same category. This was observed in the case of Dyavappa v. Bangalore University & Others.
According to the notification dated 21.03.2018, Bangalore university had welcomed applications for recruitment. In so far, as the Open category was concerned, the hiring process had finished. However, because no individuals applied for the position designated for the ST (W) category, the hiring process could not be completed.
Through a message from Bangalore University, the petitioner learned that no applications had been submitted for the position of Assistant Professor (Women) under the ST category. Later he submitted a request to be appointed to the position.
After that, he went to court to request that the University take into account his argument and order the respondents to fill the empty Assistant Professor position in Bangalore University's Department of Architecture with a person who falls under the ST category (Women).
Senior Advocate A.G. Shivanna, who was representing the petitioner, claimed that the University's subsequent notification included no provisions for filling the position as announced on 14.06.2021. According to Section 53 (8) of the Karnataka State Universities Act, the Board of Appointment must abide by any orders issued from time to time by the State Government, and the GO must be interpreted as an order issued by the State Government under Section 53 (8) of the Karnataka State Universities Act.
Further, he contended that the horizontal reservation is for women while the vertical reservation is for ST and that, taking into account the relevant Government Order, if the horizontal reservation were to be changed to men in accordance with the Government Order in the event that a suitable woman candidate for the vertical reservation of ST could not be found, there would be no prejudice in any manner.
The government's attorney stated that the appointing authority must follow the Order dated 22.11.2002 in all the cadres. Further, sub-rule (1B) of Rule 9 of the Karnataka Civil Service (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977 specifies that women must be selected from the General Merit, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and each category among the other backward classes in order to fill any vacancies set aside to the extent of 33%. According to a provision in the recruitment rule, men candidates from the same category must fill open positions if there are not a sufficient number of qualified women candidates to the extent of 33% and hence the bench concluded that "As per Recruitment Notification the post of Assistant Professor of Department of Architecture is to be filled up under the main Category of vertical reservation of Scheduled Tribe (ST) and horizontal reservation as regards one post with respect to women and the other post is reserved 'Open' for the same category. It is accordingly to be construed that the vertical reservation is of ST while horizontal reservation is as regards category of women. The Government Order as rightly contended by the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner is to be treated to be a direction of the State Government under Section 53 (8) of the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000."