NON-FIXATION OF CUT-OFF MARKS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY UNDER OVERALL HORIZONTAL RESERVATION DOES NOT VIOLATE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS: SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS
Category: Constitutional
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Facts of the case-
The respondent High Court had issued an advertisement for the direct recruitment of 120 posts of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre. The appellant-Ms. Rekha Sharma, having 40% permanent disability in relation to her eyes, had applied for the said post. The appellant,Ratan Lal having locomotor disability i.e. 55% permanent physical impairment in relation to his right upper limb, had also applied for the said post. Both having appeared in the Preliminary Examination were declared “not successful.” As per the result declared on 11.01.2022, the cut off marks in respect of every category mentioned in the advertisement were shown except the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities.
Being aggrieved by the said result, The appellant-Rekha Sharma (in C.A. No. 5051/2023) had also filed D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1868 of 2022 which came to be dismissed by the High Court vide the order dated 06.04.2022 relying upon the judgment dated 02.03.2022 passed in Writ Petition No. 1436 of 2022.
Issues in the case-
Whether the appellant falls under category of Article 16(1) i.e. Horizontal reservation for the recruitment of Civil Judge & Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre, as given in the advertisement?
Whether it is violation of Fundamental Rights as mentioned under the Article 14, 16, & 21 of the Appellant?
Whether the appellant qualifies for the application of Article 16(1) of her disability?
Legal Provisions-
Article 14, 16, & 21 of the Constitution of India
Contentions of the Appellant-
The learned counsels appearing for both the appellants in the instant appeals is that the respondents while declaring the result of Preliminary Examination showing the cut off marks for each of the categories mentioned in the advertisement in question, had not shown the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities. According to them, the said action of the respondents was discriminatory and violative of their Fundamental Rights enshrined in Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, and also violative of the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 read with Rajasthan Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2018.
Though the Learned Counsels for the appellants have strenuously urged that it was incumbent on part of the respondents to show the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities, particularly when the cut off marks for each of the categories mentioned in the advertisement in question were shown, it is difficult to accept the said submissions. Apart from the fact that the appellants having participated in the Selection Process in respect of the advertisement in question and having failed to succeed in the Preliminary Examination, had filed the writ petitions in the High Court, the appellants have also failed to substantiate their contention that it was incumbent on part of the respondents to fix the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities. As could be seen from the advertisement itself, the reservation in favour of the Persons with disabilities was an Overall Horizontal Reservation and was not compartmentalised reservation, because out of the total vacancies mentioned in the advertisement, five posts were reserved for the Persons with benchmark disabilities.
Contentions of the Respondents-
According to the learned Senior Counsel Ms. Pinky Anand appearing for the respondents, the appellant-Rekha Sharma having obtained 57 marks in the EWS category for which the cut off marks were 69 marks, and the appellant-Ratan Lal having secured 59 marks in the OBC-NCL category for which the cut off marks were 67 marks, were found to be not qualified for appearing in the Main Examination. She further submitted that the entire selection process was over on 30.08.2022 and the appointments of successful candidates have already been made by the respondents on 09.03.2023. The fresh advertisement for the vacancies of 2022-2024 was issued on 09.04.2024 and the result of the Preliminary Examination in respect of the said advertisement has also been declared on 15.07.2024.
Courts Analysis & Decisions-
The court, in this analysed about Indra Sawhney & Others vs. Union of India and Others & Anil Kumar Gupta and Others vs. State of U.P. and Others that there remains no doubt that the reservation for persons with disabilities would be relatable to Clause (1) of Article 16 and the persons selected against this quota will be placed in appropriate category i.e. if he/she belongs to Scheduled Category, he/she will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments, and if he/she belongs to open category, necessary adjustments will be made in the open category. It has been observed therein that where the seats reserved for the Horizontal Reservations are proportionately divided amongst the Vertical (Social) Reservations and are not inter-transferable, it would be a case of Compartmentalised Reservations, whereas in the Overall Reservation, while allocating the special reservation candidates to their respective social reservation category, the Overall Reservation in favour of special reservation categories has to be honoured. Meaning thereby the special reservations cannot be proportionately divided among the Vertical (Social) reservation categories, and the candidates eligible for special reservation categories have to be provided overall seats reserved for them, either by adjusting them against any of the Social/Vertical reservations or otherwise, and thus they are inter-transferable.
Thus, the Hon’ble Court held that the candidates who consciously took part in the process of selection cannot be permitted to question the advertisement or the methodology adopted by the respondents for making selection, on their having been declared as unsuccessful in the Preliminary Examinations. The appellants after they having found that their names do not appear in the list of successful candidates of Preliminary Examination, could not have questioned the result on the ground that the respondents had not declared the cut off marks for the Persons with benchmark disabilities. As stated earlier, the respondents have declared the cut off marks for the persons falling under Compartmentalised Horizontal Reservation and not for the Overall Horizontal Reservation under which the appellants fall. Such action could neither be said to be arbitrary nor violative of Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
In that view of the matter, we do not find any illegality or infirmity in the impugned judgements and orders passed by the High Court. Both the appeals are dismissed accordingly.
