Reserved category candidates who top cut-off to be treated as general: SC

new delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that candidates from reserved categories who secure higher marks than the general category cutoff must be adjusted against unreserved seats.

Reaffirming the landmark legal principle, a bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma said, “It is now a settled proposition of law that a candidate belonging to reserve category (SC, ST and OBC) who has scored marks higher than the cut off marks for the General Category is to be treated as having qualified against an open or unreserved vacant post.”

The bench made the observations while setting aside a 2020 judgment by the Kerala High Court, which had previously directed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to appoint an unreserved candidate by excluding meritorious reserved category (MRC) candidates from the general list.

Justice Sharma, who authored the judgment, said the “unreserved” category is not a “quota” for general candidates but an “open” pool available to all based strictly on merit.

The verdict said that this “Merit Induced Shift” is a requirement of Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 16 (equality of opportunity in public employment).

When a reserved category candidate outperforms general candidates without using any concessions (like age or fee relaxations), they must be counted as an “open” candidate, it said. This, in turn, keeps the reserved quota seats available for the next most meritorious candidates within that specific reserved category, it said.