Rekha Sharma vs Rajasthan High Court 2024 INSC 615 – Reservation – Vertical & Horizontal – Overall & Compartmentalised

Constitution of India, 1950; Article 16- Reservation – The concept of “Vertical Reservations” and “Horizontal Reservations” explained – Referred to Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India 1992 Supp. (3) SCC 217. (Para 12) -The reservation for persons with disabilities would be relatable to Clause (1) of Article 16 and the persons selected against this quota will be placed in appropriate category i.e. if he/she belongs to Scheduled Category, he/she will be placed in that category by making necessary adjustments, and if he/she belongs to open category, necessary adjustments will be made in the open category-

Reservation– Concept of Overall Reservations and Compartmentalised Reservations explained – Referred to Anil Kumar Gupta vs. State of U.P (1995) 5 SCC 173 – Where the seats reserved for the Horizontal Reservations are proportionately divided amongst the Vertical (Social) Reservations and are not intertransferable, it would be a case of Compartmentalised reservations, whereas in the Overall Reservation, while allocating the special reservation candidates to their respective social reservation category, the Overall Reservation in favour of special reservation categories has to be honoured. Meaning thereby the special reservations cannot be proportionately divided among the Vertical (Social) reservation categories, and the candidates eligible for special reservation categories have to be provided overall seats reserved for them, either by adjusting them against any of the Social/Vertical reservations or otherwise, and thus they are intertransferable. (Para 14)

Public Employment – The candidates who consciously took part in the process of selection cannot be permitted to question the advertisement or the methodology adopted for making selection, on their having been declared as unsuccessful in the Preliminary Examinations. (Para 16)

Summary: High Court had issued an advertisement for the direct recruitment of 120 posts of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre – It declared the cut off marks for the persons falling under Compartmentalised Horizontal Reservation and not for the Overall Horizontal Reservation under which the appellants fall- Dismissing appeal, SC held: Such action could neither be said to be arbitrary nor violative of Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

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