Quota For Children Of Defence Personnel Falls Within Overall Horizontal Reservation Under J&K Reservation Rules: J&K High Court
The High Court clarified that the reservation for Children of Defence Personnel (CDP) is an overall horizontal reservation that cuts across vertical categories such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Open Merit, rather than a compartmentalised reservation within each category.
The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has ruled that the three percent reservation provided to Children of Defence Personnel (CDP) under the J&K Reservation Rules, 2005, is an overall horizontal reservation and not a compartmentalised one.
The High Court was hearing a writ petition filed by a candidate seeking consideration under the CDP (Priority-IV) quota within the Scheduled Tribe-2 (ST-2) category for admission to MBBS/BDS courses through NEET-UG 2025, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
A Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Dhar, while deciding the matter, remarked: “3% reservation provided to Children of Defence Personnel is an overall horizontal reservation and not compartmentalized horizontal reservation. It cuts across the vertical reservation and a person, selected against CDP quota, will have to be placed in the appropriate category i.e., if he/she belongs to Scheduled Caste category, he/she will be placed in that quota by making necessary adjustment and similarly if he/she belongs to Open Competition category, he/she will be placed in that category.”
The petitioner was represented by Advocate Amullaya Gupta, while the respondents were represented by AAG Raman Sharma.
Background
The petitioner appeared in NEET-UG 2025 and secured 348 marks, attaining UT rank 3223. She claimed eligibility under the Scheduled Tribe-2 (ST-2) category and sought admission under the Children of Defence Personnel (CDP) quota (Priority-IV).
The grievance arose after the J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) released its provisional selection list for MBBS/BDS admissions, where several candidates with lower CDP priority were allegedly selected within the ST-2 category, while the petitioner’s candidature was ignored.
The petitioner contended that, as per the Ministry of Defence circular dated 21 May 2018, the inter se priority among CDP candidates governs selection, meaning a candidate with higher priority should be preferred even if their merit score is lower than others in the same category.
The BOPEE, however, argued that the CDP quota for female candidates was already exhausted, as several candidates belonging to the CDP category had secured admission on their own merit across different vertical categories. Consequently, there was no need to apply any displacement mechanism or horizontal adjustment to accommodate the petitioner.
Court’s Observation
The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court held that the petitioner’s claim was misconceived as the CDP quota had already been fulfilled through candidates who qualified on their own merit. Thus, there was no occasion for the Board to invoke inter se priority or displace any candidates to accommodate her claim.
Citing the Division Bench ruling of the J&K High Court in Syed Shaifta Arifeen Balkhi v. J&K Public Service Commission, the Court reiterated that horizontal reservations are overall and not compartmentalised, meaning that they intersect all vertical categories.
“Horizontal reservation cuts across the vertical reservation and the persons selected against CDP quota are to be placed in the appropriate category as reservation of three percent provided to Children of Defence Personnel under the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005, is an overall horizontal reservation and not compartmentalized horizontal reservation”, the Bench observed.
The Bench further explained that if a candidate belonging to the CDP quota qualifies under the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Open Merit category, they are to be adjusted within that respective vertical category without any additional displacement or double counting of seats.
In the present case, since twenty-four female CDP candidates had already been selected, exceeding the fourteen seats reserved for the CDP category, the Court held that BOPEE had acted correctly in not re-adjusting seats or displacing any candidates.
“Once the quota under CDP had already exhausted while allocating seats to female candidates on the basis of the merit obtained by them in the entrance examination, there was no need for the respondent-BOPEE to displace any candidate from any of the categories to make way for a candidate having inferior merit and better priority,” the Court concluded.
Conclusion
The High Court dismissed the petition, upholding BOPEE’s selection process and affirming that the CDP quota is an overall horizontal reservation meant to be adjusted within vertical categories rather than applied compartmentally.
The petition was accordingly dismissed as devoid of any merit.
Cause Title: Ravneet Kour v. Union of India & Others
Appearances
Petitioner: Amullaya Gupta, Advocate
Respondents: Raman Sharma, AAG
