1. Recruitment for technical posts — Dispute over adjustment of meritorious reserved category candidates against general category vacancies — Claim for appointment from the reserved category waiting list. (Para 1 , 2 )
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2022 Supreme(SC) 383
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
M.R. SHAH, B.V. NAGARATHNA, JJ.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Another – Appellants
Versus
Sandeep Choudhary and Others – Respondents
Civil Appeal No. 8717 of 2015
Decided On : 28-04-2022
Important Points
IMPORTANT POINT
Reservation – Merit must be given precedence and if candidates, who belong to SCs, STs and OBCs have secured higher marks or are more meritorious, they must be considered against seats meant for unreserved candidates.
Reservation – Merit must be given precedence and if candidates, who belong to SCs, STs and OBCs have secured higher marks or are more meritorious, they must be considered against seats meant for unreserved candidates.
Subject
Reservation - Vertical and Horizontal Reservation
Act Referred
Headnote
Service Law – Reservation – Candidates belonging to any of vertical reservation categories are entitled to be selected in “open or general” category – If such candidates belonging to reserved categories are entitled to be selected on the basis of their own merit, their selection cannot be counted against quota reserved for categories that they belong – Reserved category candidates securing higher marks than last of general category candidates are entitled to get seat/post in unreserved categories – Merit must be given precedence and if candidates, who belong to SCs, STs and OBCs have secured higher marks or are more meritorious, they must be considered against seats meant for unreserved candidates – In exercise of powers under Article 142 of Constitution of India, it is observed and directed that on reshuffling, two candidates belonging to general category in present case shall not be removed from service as they are working since long. (Paras 8.5, 8.6 and 11)
Facts of the case:
Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 04.08.2014 passed by the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur in DBCWP No. 14714/2013, by which the High Court has dismissed the said writ petition preferred by the appellants herein – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and has confirmed the judgment and order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jodhpur Bench, Jodhpur in O.A. No. 159 of 2009 by which the learned Tribunal allowed the said application preferred by the respondent No.1 herein – original applicant and directed the appellant herein – BSNL to consider his candidature if sufficient vacancies exist for placement of the candidates of Other Backward Class and his candidature shall be considered against the present or future vacancies on the OBC category after determining the vacancies as per rules, the appellant – BSNL has preferred the present appeal.
Findings of Court:
High Court has not committed any error in observing and holding that the two candidates, namely, Mr. Alok Kumar Yadav and Mr. Dinesh Kumar, will have to be adjusted against the general category candidates and accordingly respondent No.1 being a reserved category candidate and being at Sr. No.1 in waiting list of reserved category was to be appointed.
Result : Appeal dismissed.
Legal Category Hierarchy
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellants :Pradeep Kumar Mathur, Chiranjeev Johri, Advocates
For the Respondents:Puneet Jain, Christi Jain, Umang Mehta, Shruti Singh, Yogit Kamat, Pratibha Jain, Advocates
For the Appellants :Pradeep Kumar Mathur, Chiranjeev Johri, Advocates
For the Respondents:Puneet Jain, Christi Jain, Umang Mehta, Shruti Singh, Yogit Kamat, Pratibha Jain, Advocates
Table of Contents
2. Whether meritorious reserved category candidates must be adjusted against the general pool or can be counted against reserved vacancies to avoid unsettling the selection process. (Para 4 , 5 )
3. Distinction between vertical and horizontal reservations — Meritorious reserved candidates in vertical categories must be adjusted against the general pool to preserve reserved quotas. (Para 8 , 10 )
4. Reserved category candidates selected on merit in the general category are not counted against the reserved quota, leaving those seats available for other reserved candidates. (Para 9 )
5. Appeal dismissed — Respondent appointed against reserved seat — Existing general category appointees retained via Article 142 with seniority adjusted for the respondent. (Para 9 , 11 )
6. Should a reserved category candidate who secures marks higher than the general category cut-off be counted against the reserved quota?
No. Candidates belonging to vertical reservation categories who are selected on their own merit in the open or general category are not counted against the quota reserved for the categories they belong to. (Para 9 )
7. If meritorious reserved candidates are adjusted against general seats, how does it affect other reserved candidates?
Such adjustment ensures that the entire reservation quota remains intact and available in addition to those selected under open competition, allowing other reserved category candidates to be appointed on merit. (Para 9 )
8. Does the principle of adjusting meritorious reserved candidates against general seats apply to service allocation preferences?
The court distinguished selection merit from service allocation. In service allocation, candidates may be adjusted against reserved vacancies if it grants them a service of higher preference, which is distinct from the basic selection process based on merit. (Para 10 )
JUDGMENT :
M.R. SHAH, J.
1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 04.08.2014 passed by the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur in DBCWP No. 14714/2013, by which the High Court has dismissed the said writ petition preferred by the appellants herein-Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (hereinafter referred to as “BSNL”) and has confirmed the judgment and order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jodhpur Bench, Jodhpur (hereinafter referred to as the “Tribunal”) in O.A. No. 159 of 2009 by which the learned Tribunal allowed the said application preferred by the respondent No. 1 herein-original applicant and directed the appellant herein-BSNL to consider his candidature if sufficient vacancies exist for placement of the candidates of Other Backward Class and his candidature shall be considered against the present or future vacancies on the OBC category after determining the vacancies as per rules, the appellant-BSNL has preferred the present appeal.
2. The facts leading to the present appeal in nutshell are as under:
2.1 That the private respondent No. 1 herein-original applicant applied for the post of Telecom Technical Assistants (TTAs) in pursuance to the notification dated 06.10.2008 issued by BSNL for filling up of TTA posts. The appointment was to be made by way of direct recruitment by open competitive examination in the Rajasthan Telecom Circle. The said advertisement further provided that the unit of recruitment shall be the respective Secondary Switching Area (SSA). The dispute in the present case is relating to the Ajmer SSA. In the Ajmer SSA, the vacancies were as follows:
| S. No. | Name of SS rect. | Units No. of Posts | No. UR posts | OBC | SC | ST | PH | Ex-Service |
| 1. | Ajmer | 12 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
The recruitment was to be made by conducting a competitive examination of eligible candidates in an objective type paper of 200 marks. Clause 13 of the advertisement provided that:
(i) The minimum Qualifying marks in the paper would be 40% for the candidates of unreserved category candidate.
(ii) 33% for candidates of reserved category.
It so happened that in the exam which was conducted no person from general category candidate got more than 40% marks. However, four candidates from OBC category obtained more than 33% marks. The marks obtained by four OBC category candidates are as under:
OBC selected candidates
| S. No. | Name | Marks (out of 200) | Percentage |
| 1. | Alok Kumar Yadav | 79.75 | 39.87 |
| 2. | Dinesh Kumar | 77 | 38.5 |
| 3. | Alka Saini | 72.5 | 36.25 |
| 4. | Ved Prakash | 68.5 | 34.25 |
The original applicant-respondent No. 1 herein, who got 68.25 marks was placed at Waiting List No. 1 in the OBC category.
2.2 On 01.06.2009, BSNL issued a circular/letter to all heads of telecom circles, inter-alia, stating that there has been poor pass percentage of candidates in the TTA examination and number of vacancies had remained unfilled. There was acute shortage of manpower and hence it was decided to relax the qualifying marks by 10% for all candidates. Accordingly, the qualifying marks were re-fixed at 30% for general category and 23% for reserved category. Clauses (iii) and (v) of the said letter provides as follows:
(iii) Successful candidates, qualifying through normal standards in aggregate will rank en-block senior to those qualifying through relaxed standard in the merit list. However, the provisions of the Recruitment Rules will determine their inter-se seniority in the cadre.
(v) The Circles who have already announced the result but have not got adequate number of successful candidates, may further extend the merit/waiting list as per above instructions.
2.3 After relaxation of minimum marks with 30% of general category candidates, the following five candidates in general category became eligible for appointment:
OC selected candidates
| S. No. | Name | Marks |
| 1. | Neelima Sharma | 79.75 |
| 2. | Deepik | |
