Meritorious candidates under vertical reservation category entitled to be considered in open category: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court observed that the selection of candidates belonging to a vertical reservation category(SC / ST / OBC / EWS), when selected in the open or general category on their own merit, would not be counted against the quota reserved for vertical reservation categories. This will prevent the reservation bypass attempt, including in Kerala. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said that reserved category candidates with more marks than the general category cut-off should not be included in the reservation quota.

The order is on a petition related to MBBS admissions for 2023-24 in Madhya Pradesh. This will have to be applied to PSC recruitment in the state and medical and engineering admissions from this year onwards. This will put an end to the fraudulent game of sabotaging merit and reservation by putting the reserved category people in the reservation quota without considering them in the general category even if they have merit.

How does the foul play happen?

In professional course admission, backward candidates above the cut-off mark of general category will not be considered for general category. The number in the reservation quota will be filled by including them. A single glance will not reveal any shortfall in the number of eligible reserved seats. When they are shifted from merit to reservation quota, another student in the reservation category is denied a seat. The general category will get the lion's share of the merit.

Unit formula for PSC reservation fraud

PSC's reservation scam has been done over the years by dividing the total vacancies in one post into various units. Out of 100 vacancies, half should be considered on merit and half on reservation. PSC will divide a hundred vacancies into five units of 20 each. 1, 3, 5, and 7 in the rank list are appointed in the general category and 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the reserved category. Merit and reservation will be followed for 20 vacancies in the first unit. From the next unit (21-40), the backward candidate who should be in the general category will be pushed to the reserved category. The person who should get the real reservation will be out. The solution to the reservation bypassing is to appoint 100 vacancies as a single unit.