Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday said if a candidate belonging to the reserved category succeeds on merit in the civil services examination, he or she could still migrate to the reserved category to avail a post on preferential basis.
The apex court’s constitution bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice P. Sathasivam said the seat thus created in general category by the migration of the reserved category candidate would go to an unreserved category candidate.

The constitution bench verdict came after a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court May 14 last year referred to it the matter - whether reserved category candidates selected on merit and placed in the general category list could be considered for the reserved category at the time of “service allocation”.

With its verdict, the apex court has set aside the judgment of the Madras High Court which had held void Rule 16(2) of the Civil Service Examination Rules, 2005, providing for such migration of meritorious reserved category candidates.

Writing the judgment for the bench, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said that by the operation of Rule 16 (2), the reserved status of a meritorious reserved category candidate is protected so that his/her better performance does not deny him/her of the chance to be allotted a more preferred service.

The judgment said that the amended Rule 16 (2) only seeks to recognize the merit between two classes of candidates - meritorious reserved category candidates and relatively lower ranked reserved category candidates - for the purpose of allocation to various civil services with regard to the preferences indicated by them.