Reserved Category Candidates Can Compete for Unreserved Govt Posts on Merit: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled that applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) who secure marks higher than the general category cut-off are entitled to be considered for unreserved posts in government employment.

The judgment is being seen as a significant boost for deserving candidates from reserved groups, as it reinforces the principle that merit should prevail in open-category selections and reshapes how general seats are interpreted.

The ruling came in response to a dispute arising from a recruitment exercise conducted by the Rajasthan High Court. The High Court had enforced a rule stating that candidates from reserved categories could not be appointed to general category positions, even if they scored above the prescribed cut-off for those seats.

The Rajasthan High Court had maintained that permitting such candidates to take unreserved posts would amount to giving them an unfair “double advantage” — first through reservation benefits and then through selection in the open category. However, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine G. Masih dismissed this reasoning, stressing that merit-based selection cannot be undermined.

In its judgment, the Court also referred to the historic Indra Sawhney case of 1992. Justice Datta observed that the term “open category” means exactly that — seats that are not restricted to any caste or social group and are available to all candidates based purely on performance.

The Court clarified that the existence of reservation provisions cannot disqualify a capable SC, ST, OBC, or EWS candidate from securing an unreserved seat if they qualify on merit alone.

To ensure clarity in implementation, the Supreme Court outlined how this principle should operate during recruitment:

• In written examinations, if a candidate from a reserved category scores higher than the general cut-off, they should be treated as a general category candidate for the next stage, such as interviews.
• However, at the stage of preparing the final merit list, if the candidate’s overall ranking falls below the general category threshold, they will be placed back in their respective reserved category and will continue to receive reservation benefits.