NARAYANA PAI, CJ. ( 1 ) THESE three petitions relate to the selection made in the year 1971 of persons for appointment as Village Accountants in Shimoga District, in accordance with the Mysore General Services (Revenue Subordinate branch) Village Accountants (Recruitment) Rules of 1970, as amended upto May 1971, The Petitioners were applicants for selection, but only the, following petitioners are qualified for recruimtent because they possessed the necessary minimum educational qualification and also otherwise satis fied the conditions prescribed for recruitment as Village Accountants: n. V. Nadig, Petitioner in WP. 2203/71, S. N. Krishna Murthy, Petitioner in WP. 2314/71, S. Anantha Jois, M. Ramamurthy Rao and H. S. Gopalakrishna Rao, Petitioners Nos. 2, 11 and 14 in WP. 2234/71. ( 2 ) THE challenge they make to the validity of the selection is that there has been reservation for scheduled castes in excess of what should have been legitimately reserved for them. ( 3 ) TOTAL number of vacancies in respect of which recruitment was made was 187; adding a 10 per cent for reserve, the total number of persons actually selected was 206. In respect of these 206 vacancies there could have been reserved for scheduled castes only 30 posts. Actually 60 persons belonging to Scheduled Caste were selected, applying what is known as cycle theory under which posts reserved for scheduled castes at any recruitment could in effect be carried over to the extent of the deficiency. This is however opposel to the principle enunciated in the ruling of the Supreme Court in Devadasan v. Union of India, AIR. 1964 SC. 179. The result of the application of the said principle is that the selection of the candidates belonging to the scheduled caste in excess of 30 is opposed to law. ( 4 ) ANOTHER attack against the selection is that whereas the Mysore state Civil Service Direct Recruitment by Selection Rules, 1967 which are to be followed while making recruitment under the Village Accountants recruitment Rules of 1970 mentioned above prescribe only an interview, the Selection Committee in these cases also held a written test and assessed the relative merit of candidates on the total of marks secured by them at the written test and the marks secured by them at the interview. The Direct Recruitment Rules which govern the recruitment do not permit the application of the written test because the selection is to be on the basis of the performance in the interview intended to test their calibre including intellectual and social traits of personality. Hence, the application of the written test must be held to be beyond the rules and therefore, inapplicable to the situation. ( 5 ) THE list of selected persons, therefore, will have to be redone first by limiting the number of posts for scheduled castes to 30 and secondly by excluding from consideration the result of the written test. As the Registers maintained in connection with the selection contain separate specification of the marks secured by the candidates in the written test and the marks secured by them in interview, there will be no difficulty in redoing the list, ( 6 ) WE, therefore, make the following directions: the Selection Committee functioning under the Mysore General services (Revenue Subordinate Branch) Village Accountants (Recruitment) rules, 1970, in connection with the selection of persons for appointment as Village Accountants in Shimoga District, should re-do the list of selected candidates on the basis of marks secured by them at the interview alone (excluding from consideration marks secured by them at the written test) and limiting the number of posts reserved for scheduled caste to 30. In making reservation for scheduled castes, they should follow the principles enunciated by this Court in the case of Partha v. State of mysore. If in the list so re-done, any cf the five persons mentioned above, namely, N. V. Nadig, S. N. Krishnamurthy Rao, S. Anantha Jois m. Ramamurthy Rao and H. S. Gopalakrishna Rao get included in the list of selected persons, they will be treated as persons validly selected for appointment as Village Accountants in Shimoga District. Such of the selected persons among the Respondents in WP. No. 2234/71 as may get displaced by any of the said five petitioners shall not be appoinetd. ( 7 ) IN regard to other petitioners in WP. 2234/1971, the writ petition will stand dismissed as their contention about the validity of Rule regarding prescription of different or lower educational qualification for Panchayat Secretaries and their claim for similarly lower educatiinal qualification have been rejected in our decision in WP. 2650/71 dt. 22-2-1972. --- *** --- .