Apex court said that reserved category to be treated general on getting more marks
29-04-2022
A bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said candidates belonging to reserved categories can stake claim to seats in unreserved categories
The Supreme Court on Thursday said a reserved category candidate would be treated as a general class if he has secured higher marks than the last candidate selected within the open category.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said candidates belonging to reserved categories can stake claim to seats in unreserved categories if their merit and position entitled them to try and do so.
The top court applied the law laid down in an exceedingly catena of judgements since Indra Sawhney case (1992) to Saurav Yadav (2021) and Sadhna Singh Dangi (2022) wherein, it's been held if candidates belonging to reserved categories are entitled to be selected on the premise of their own merit, their selection can't be counted against the quota reserved for the categories that they belong.
It dismissed an appeal filed by the BSNL against the Rajasthan High Court's judgement directing the general public sector company to think about the candidature of an OBC candidate for the post of Technical Assistant as two reserved candidates were kept within the OBC category despite having secured more marks than the last candidate within the general category.
Amicus curiae senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan and advocate Gaurav Agrawal submitted that the reserved category candidates having obtained more marks than the last candidate normally category candidates will need to be adjusted against the final category quota and that they were required to be considered within the general category pool, thereby the remaining candidates belonging to the reserved category were required to be appointed against the quota meant for reserved category.
The court noted here the BSNL considered the appointment of the 2 candidates within the reserved category, despite having secured higher marks and thereby caused a loss to the reserved category candidates, who could are appointed if the 2 candidates belonging to the reserved category would are adjusted and or appointed within the general pool.
In the instant case, the court directed the BSNL to regulate two reserved category candidates within the general class, without removing two candidates from the final category who are working for a protracted within the department. It also ordered the reserved category candidate would be entitled to seniority at par with the final category candidates.
