[Domicile Quota] Uttarakhand High Court directs State Public Service Commission to revise merit list for women candidates

The Uttarakhand High Court directed the State Public Service Commission on Tuesday to revise its merit list and re-issue cut-off marks for women candidates in general, without considering the domicile quota in the examination conducted for the posts of Uttarakhand Combined Service, Senior Service.

The court was hearing a petition challenging the reservation of 30 percent given to women candidates who had a domicile in Uttarakhand.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice R C Khulbe directed the state commission to issue a new list of successful women candidates in a single category rather than separating them into domicile and non-domicile categories.

The High Court last week stayed a Government order (GO) which granted 30 percent reservation to women with Uttarakhand domicile.

According to the petition before the division bench, the reservation granted to women with Uttarakhand domicile violated Article 16(3) of the Constitution.

The case of the petitioner was that due to the aforesaid reservation, she did not qualify for the prelims despite scoring higher than the cut-off for women in Uttarakhand.

Petitioner challenged the GO which was issued in 2001, and again in 2006 claiming that such a mandate is violative of Articles 14, 16, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India.

Petitioner also stated that no state government can grant reservations based on birth and permanent residence.

Taking note of the same, Court directed the State government to file its reply by October 11, 2022, i.e. the next date of hearing.

Source: The New Indian Express