Reserved category to be treated general on getting more marks: SC

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 in 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 do so.

The top court applied the law laid down in a catena of judgements since Indra Sawhney case (1992) to Saurav Yadav (2021) and Sadhna Singh Dangi (2022) wherein, it has been held if candidates belonging to reserved categories are entitled to be selected on the basis of their own merit, their selection cannot 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 public sector company to consider the candidature of an OBC candidate for the post of Technical Assistant as two reserved candidates were kept in the OBC category despite having secured more marks than the last candidate in 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 in general category candidates will have to be adjusted against the general category quota and they were required to be considered in 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 two candidates in the reserved category, despite having secured higher marks and thereby caused a loss to the reserved category candidates, who could have been appointed if the two candidates belonging to the reserved category would have been adjusted and or appointed in the general pool.

In the instant case, the court directed the BSNL to adjust two reserved category candidates in the general class, without removing two candidates from the general category who have been working for a long in the department. It also ordered the reserved category candidate would be entitled to seniority at par with the general category candidates.

Check out DH's latest videos: