Categorising Candidates Based On Their Reserved Categories During Selection Process Illegal: Punjab & Haryana HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that categorizing candidates on the basis of their reserved category during the selection process is bad in law.
A petition was filed to quash the results of the Post Graduate Teacher (PGT) Screening Test as the scheme/pattern of the examination for PGT-Mathematics was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
The petitioner had applied for the post as a backward-class category candidate and argued that the examination scheme contradicted settled law on reservation, stating that reserved category candidates should be considered for unreserved/general posts. Having scored higher than many general category candidates, the petitioner asserted the right to be considered for unreserved posts based on merit.
A Single Bench of Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya, while explaining why categorizing candidates on the basis of their reserved category during the selection process is bad in law, observed, “It will be opposed to the rule of migration in reservation, which presupposes equality of opportunity and a level playing field in judging comparative merit of the candidates. Since a meritorious reserved category candidate is to be allowed to migrate to an open/un reserved post, his/her merit for that purpose needs to be judged on an equal footing by open competition amongst all the candidates, without any categorisation.”
Advocate Vivek Salathia represented the petitioner, while DAG Parveen Mehta appeared for the respondents.
The Court noted, “In case the candidates are to be categorised and judged within their respective reserved categories, they would be subjected to a restrictive competition which is not the same as the unreserved candidates would be subjected to.”
The Court explained that the correct method to implement the rule of reservation is to draw the final merit list based on reserved categories. At that stage, meritorious reserved category candidates should be considered first for selection against open/unreserved posts. The selection process under question confined candidates to their respective reserved categories and deprived them of the right to be considered for open-category posts based on merit.
Therefore, the Court held that the scheme of the examination followed by making selections was contrary to the rule of reservation.
The High Court allowed the petition.
Cause Title: Parmila v. State of Haryana & Anr. (2024:PHHC:000733)
