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Synopsis

The Bench of Justice G.S. Ahluwalia, while dismissing the petition, was of the opinion that the respondents did not commit any mistake in not giving appointment to the petitioner, as alleged in the petition. 

In the pertinent matter, the petitioner had alleged that the respondents did not give her an appointment, even though she was eligible under the unreserved women category. It was further alleged that out of the 8 vacant seats, only 7 posts were filled. And therefore, the contention was that a candidate from a reserved quota was given a seat under unreserved category.

While the respondents submitted that the reservation was horizontal in nature. And that the petitioner did not score minimum cut off marks as fixed by the selection committee. Further, the respondents contended that if a candidate belonging to reserved quota gets more marks than the cut off marks of general category, then that candidate would be eligible under unreserved quota as well. 

Therefore, the question before the Court was, 'whether in case of horizontal reservation, migration from one category to another category is permissible or not?'

The Court was of the opinion that, "Unreserved category is not a quota and cannot be treated as a separate independent category reserved for those candidates only who does not belong to other reserved category. Unreserved category is an open category available to all the candidates, even to those who are belonging to other reserved categories. Therefore, if a candidate belonging to a reserved class is given appointment against the unreserved quota for having secured more marks, then it would not amount to migration of a candidate from one category to another.

Further the Court noted that, "Since the seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates has remained unfilled and nobody has challenged the said aspect, therefore, it is not necessary to consider the aspect as to whether non-filling of post reserved for SC category was proper or not".

 

Case Title: Lovely Niranjan vs Rajmata Vijyaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwavidyalaya