``In making reservations for the backward classes, the state cannot ignore the fundamental rights of the rest of the citizens,'' a five-judge Constitution bench comprising Justices S C Agrawal, G N Ray, A S Anand, S P Bharucha and S Rajendra Babu held in a 51-page judgment yesterday.

The bench held that there was no difficulty in appreciating a need for reservation for members of the backward castes and scheduled tribes and other backward classes and that such reservation was not confined to the initial appointment in a cadre but also to the appointment in promotional posts.

``It cannot, however, be lost sight of that in the anxiety for such reservation for the backward classes, a situation should not be brought about by which the chance of appointment is completely takenaway so far as the members of other segments of the society are concerned by making single-post cent per cent reservation for the reserved categories to the exclusion of other members of the community even when such member is senior in service and is otherwise more meritorious,'' the bench said. The Constitution bench judgment came on a review petition by the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, seeking a court direction to validate the constitutionality of reservation in a single-post cadre in the wake of conflicting decisions of the court.