In Brief
The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking mandamus to absorb/select police constables under unfilled vacancies, addressing the intersection of horizontal reservations (for women, dependents of Freedom Fighters, and Ex-Servicemen) with vertical social reservations. The Court held that horizontal reservations are overlapping, interlocking quotas to be calculated concurrently with vertical reservations, not separate rigid pools. Candidates entitled to horizontal reservation cannot be barred from open category selection based on merit alone; doing so would negate merit and create communal reservation. The Court rejected the state's contention that women from social categories must be confined to reserved seats, and found no case for mandamus absent proper statutory procedure."
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