Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) The Supreme Court Thursday suspended an Allahabad High Court order which had scrapped the results of the Uttar Pradesh civil services preliminary examination for 2007 that had introduced quota for Dalit and backward category candidates.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan temporarily halted the high court’s Aug 30 order on a lawsuit by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging it.

The lawsuit had contended that the high court order has not merely brought the entire three-stage selection process of the state’s civil services for the year to naught but also cast doubts over the legality of the results of various other examinations for state jobs.

The high court had scrapped the preliminary examination result Aug 30 on a lawsuit by candidate Dhananjay Singh and others, challenging the state government’s decision to reserve seats for Dalit and backward category candidates during the preliminary examinations.

The high court stayed the preliminary examination, ruling that the introduction of quota for Dalit and backward category candidates at this stage was not legally justified.

The high court division bench of Justice Amitav Lala and Justice Umanath Singh had also asked the state government to conduct the examination afresh within a month.

While staying the Allahabad High court order, the apex court bench, which included Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan, issued notices to petitioner Dhananjay Singh and others, seeking their replies to the state government’s lawsuit within four weeks.

In his lawsuit, Dhananjay Singh had pointed out that to provide reservation to Dalit and backward category students, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission had changed its rule for holding preliminary examinations for 2007.

He said to provide the quota, the Commission had fixed different cut off marks for different categories of candidates.

The cut off marks for general category candidates was fixed at 347.25, while for the backward, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates it was fixed respectively at 345, 308.75 and 242.19.

Citing an apex court ruling in the case of Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission versus Balaji, the high court had ruled that as per the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission’s rules and regulations, the preliminary test is not meant to select the candidate for the state job.

It is merely a process to screen the most eligible candidates who appear for the civil service examination in huge numbers, the high court had ruled.

The candidates are eventually selected for the state job on the basis of the main examination and the interview, the high court had reasoned.

It had also directed that if the requisite number of backward and Dalit category candidates fail to clear the preliminary tests, the joint and common cut-off for all candidates should be lowered rather than having different cut-offs for different categories.

The UPPSC had issued the advertisement for the 2007 State Civil Services Examination in March 2007 and held the preliminary examination in September that year. The results were declared in February 2009 and the main examination for 2007 were held in July-August 2009.

But the high court’s Aug 30 order had rendered the main examination meaningless.