NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has reiterated the settled principle that SC/ST/OBC candidates who make it to the merit list on their own are entitled to be selected for open seats in the general class. The open category is open to all, and the only condition to be eligible is merit, irrespective of class, the court said.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan granted relief to petitioners from SC/ST/OBC categories who were not given MBBS admission under Unreserved (UR) Category Government School (GS) quota in MP for 2023-24 despite being more meritorious, having scored higher marks in the entrance exam than those who were eventually admitted.
the bench said the principle was to be applied in both horizontal and vertical reservation. While vertical reservation applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law (such as SC, ST, OBC), horizontal quota is provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through vertical categories.
The court said petitioners were denied admission in medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh in 2023-24 session due to “erroneous application of methodology in applying horizontal and vertical reservation”. It said that a meritorious reserved category candidate who is entitled to the ‘General’ category of the said horizontal reservation on his own merit, will have to be allotted a seat from the said ‘General’ category of the horizontal reservation. GS quota was introduced by MP in 2023.
The petitioners alleged that the procedure followed by the govt in sub-classifying the candidates further into categories as UR-GS, SC-GS, ST-GS, OBC-GS and EWS-GS was totally illegal.
“The methodology adopted by the respondents in compartmentalising the different categories in the horizontal reservation and restricting the migration of the meritorious reserved category candidates to the unreserved seats is totally unsustainable. In view of the law laid down by this Court, meritorious candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC, who on their own merit, were entitled to be selected against the UR-GS quota, have been denied the seats against the open seats in the GS quota,” the court said.
Referring to previous verdicts of SC, the bench said the horizontal as well as the vertical reservation would not be seen as rigid “slots”, where a candidate’s merit, which otherwise entitles her or him to be shown in the open general category, is foreclosed. “It was observed that by doing so, it would result in communal reservation, where each social category is confined within the extent of their reservation, thus negating merit,” the court said.
“It is to be noted that, in the present case, the cut-off for UR candidates was much less as compared to the cut-off for SC/ST/OBC/EWS candidates. As such, the respondents ought to have admitted the present appellants against the UR-GS categories. It is further to be noted that many seats from UR-GS category were required to be transferred to the general category,” the court said.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan granted relief to petitioners from SC/ST/OBC categories who were not given MBBS admission under Unreserved (UR) Category Government School (GS) quota in MP for 2023-24 despite being more meritorious, having scored higher marks in the entrance exam than those who were eventually admitted.
the bench said the principle was to be applied in both horizontal and vertical reservation. While vertical reservation applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law (such as SC, ST, OBC), horizontal quota is provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through vertical categories.
The court said petitioners were denied admission in medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh in 2023-24 session due to “erroneous application of methodology in applying horizontal and vertical reservation”. It said that a meritorious reserved category candidate who is entitled to the ‘General’ category of the said horizontal reservation on his own merit, will have to be allotted a seat from the said ‘General’ category of the horizontal reservation. GS quota was introduced by MP in 2023.
The petitioners alleged that the procedure followed by the govt in sub-classifying the candidates further into categories as UR-GS, SC-GS, ST-GS, OBC-GS and EWS-GS was totally illegal.
“The methodology adopted by the respondents in compartmentalising the different categories in the horizontal reservation and restricting the migration of the meritorious reserved category candidates to the unreserved seats is totally unsustainable. In view of the law laid down by this Court, meritorious candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC, who on their own merit, were entitled to be selected against the UR-GS quota, have been denied the seats against the open seats in the GS quota,” the court said.
Referring to previous verdicts of SC, the bench said the horizontal as well as the vertical reservation would not be seen as rigid “slots”, where a candidate’s merit, which otherwise entitles her or him to be shown in the open general category, is foreclosed. “It was observed that by doing so, it would result in communal reservation, where each social category is confined within the extent of their reservation, thus negating merit,” the court said.
“It is to be noted that, in the present case, the cut-off for UR candidates was much less as compared to the cut-off for SC/ST/OBC/EWS candidates. As such, the respondents ought to have admitted the present appellants against the UR-GS categories. It is further to be noted that many seats from UR-GS category were required to be transferred to the general category,” the court said.