SC to hear on June 24 Haryana's plea against quashing of extra marks policy

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea of Haryana government against a high court order, quashing the state's policy of granting additional marks to its residents in recruitment exams.

A vacation bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Rajesh Bindal will hear the plea filed jointly by the Haryana government and the state staff selection commission challenging the May 31 order of the high court.

On May 31, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had struck down the policy of the state government granting five per cent bonus marks on socio-economic criteria of the candidate, who is a state resident, to the total percentage of marks in the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for Group C and D posts.

It had ruled that no state can restrict employment to its own residents alone by allowing the benefit of 5 per cent weightage in marks and said, "The respondents (state government) have created an artificial classification to the similarly situated candidates applying for the post."

The high court had further said, "While principally we agree that the state has to follow the provisions which are for the welfare of the people, but they cannot create an artificial classification which results in discrimination between similarly placed persons. All candidates who apply for the post are equally entitled to selection based on the common examination conducted for all." The verdict criticised the state government for the policy and said that it has conducted the entire selection in a "wholly slipshod manner".

"The notification of granting the bonus marks of 5% for socio economic criteria and experience is not based on any Rules framed under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India. It is also noticed that no data was collected before laying down such a socio economic criteria," it said.

The state government policy was implemented on May 5, 2022 and affected 401 categories of jobs across 63 groups for which the Common Eligibility Test (CET) was held.

The high court had quashed the CET results declared on January 10, 2023, and the subsequent results of July 25, 2023, and directed that a fresh merit list be prepared solely on the basis of CET marks of the candidates.