Supreme Court says SC, ST, OBC and Economically Weaker Sections entitled to general category post if...

The Supreme Court has ruled that candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections are entitled to appointment against general category posts if they secure the cutoff marks prescribed for the general category.

The ruling, delivered by a bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine G. Masih, drew inspiration from the Supreme Court’s landmark 1992 judgment in the Indra Sawhney case, which had upheld 27% reservation for OBCs in government jobs. The bench dismissed a petition challenging a Rajasthan High Court decision that had barred reserved category candidates from being appointed to general category posts despite their securing marks higher than the general category cutoff during recruitment for certain posts.

After a High Court division bench ruled in favour of reserved category candidates seeking consideration for general category posts, the High Court approached the Supreme Court, arguing that allowing such consideration would amount to granting them a double benefit. Writing the judgment, Justice Datta said, "We hold that the word 'open' connotes nothing but 'open', meaning thereby that vacant posts which are sought to be filled by earmarking it as 'open' do not fall in any category."


Upholding the HC division bench's decision, SC said, "The availability of reservation doesn't operate as a bar for a reserved category candidate from being considered on merit against the unreserved category."

The HC recruitment process was based on a written test followed by an interview. SC said if a reserved category candidate gets more marks more than the cutoff prescribed for general category, they should be considered to be in general category while appearing for interview. If the cumulative marks fall short of the cutoff for general category, they would be considered under the reserved category to which they belonged.