Failure To Substantiate Reserved Category Claim Doesn't Disentitle Candidate From Competing In General Category On Merit: Rajasthan High Court
The Rajasthan High Court has held that a candidate's failure to substantiate a claim for reservation does not disentitle them from being considered in the General category on their own merit.While underscoring the aforementioned principle, the division bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Ashutosh Kumar granted relief to the petitioner whose candidature was rejected after she failed to...
The Rajasthan High Court has held that a candidate's failure to substantiate a claim for reservation does not disentitle them from being considered in the General category on their own merit.
While underscoring the aforementioned principle, the division bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Ashutosh Kumar granted relief to the petitioner whose candidature was rejected after she failed to produce OBC category document, despite her marks being above the cut-off for General Category.
The Court opined that rejection of her candidature was the result of an erroneous compartmentalization of categories, wherein reservation was treated as a rigid slot that foreclosed considering on merit in the open category.
For context, the petitioner had applied for the post of Junior Engineer in which she received marks that were above the cut-off for general category.
It was the petitioner's case that by mistake she had mentioned OBC in her application form for which she did not have any supporting documents. Hence, after document verification, her candidature was rejected. This was challenged before the single judge which was dismissed. Hence, the present appeal was filed.
It was argued by the petitioner that mentioning of wrong category in the form was an honest mistake, which was revealed during document verification. Since she had secured marks above the cut-off for General category, she was entitled to be considered on her own merit under the open category, and could not be confined to reserved category.
On the contrary, the State submitted that a candidate was bound by the declarations made in the application form. Change in category could not be made after the selection process was concluded since that would unsettle the select list and prejudice other candidates.
After hearing the contentions, the Court referred to the Supreme Court decision in Ramnaresh@ Rinku Khushwah and others v State of Madhya Pardesh and others, in which it was held,
“…a candidate belonging to any of the vertical reservation categories who on the basis of his own merit is entitled to be selected in the open or general category, will be selected against the general category and his selection would not be counted against the quota reserved for such vertical reservation categories.”
The Court observed that the general category remained open to the petitioner on her own merit, irrespective of the category mentioned in her application form or her failure to substantiate the same.
It was held that the contention of the State that a candidate was bound by declarations in the application form could not be stretched to the extent that it defeated her consideration in the open category on merit, since merit was the only criterion in general category.
“The failure to produce a reserved-category certificate, at the most, disentitles a candidate to the benefit of reservation. It does not disentitle her to compete in the open category.”
Accordingly, the present appeal was allowed, and the State was directed to consider petitioner's candidature in the general category.
Title: Antima Jain v the State of Rajasthan & Ors.
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 331