Court: Jammu and Kashmir High Court
Bench: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sanjeev Kumar
Case No.: SWP No. 1746/2018
Case Title: Anil Sharma and others v. Chief General Manager, Human Resources Management, Reserve Bank of India and another
Date of Judgement: 19.03.2020
Brief of the Case:
Reserve Bank of India claimed that it had granted 8 Grace Marks to the petitioners seeking the benefit of horizontal reservation being from category of ex-servicemen and persons with disabilities. The court was of the view that the way the respondents have given effect to horizontal reservation provided to the category of ex-servicemen is not in consonance with law and amounts to denial of benefit of reservation provided for such category. The respondents by devising this novel way of operating horizontal reservation defeated the concept of horizontal reservation provided for certain categories like “person with disability” and “ex- servicemen”.
The bench observed that granting grace marks without actual reservation to the candidates belonging to Handicapped or ex-servicemen category and then comparing there result with open category is not just and fair and not as per horizontal reservation provided by the law in consonance with the Constitutional Art 16(1).
In The court observed, "It goes without saying that in the instant selection, there were no minimum standards fixed by the respondents to qualify for selection and therefore, addition of 08 grace marks to the merit of the petitioners was totally inconsequential. It was totally absurd and illogical to compare the merit of the candidates belonging to ex-servicemen category with the merit of last selected in open merit. The whole procedure adopted by the respondents is de-hors the rules and settled position of law as enumerated in the case of Indira Sawhney and others Vs. Union of India, reported in 1992 Supp (3) SCC 210. The petitioners were entitled to the benefit of horizontal reservation and with a view to give effect to such reservation, it was incumbent upon the respondents to prepare a separate merit list of the candidates belong to the categories of EX-I and EX-2 and pick up one candidate with highest merit in the category of EX-I and four candidates in the order of merit from the category EX-2 and place them in the select list of their respective categories."
Allowing the petition, the court directed the respondents to select and appoint the petitioners as Office Attendants in the Jammu Office of Reserve Bank of India by giving them the benefit of horizontal reservation meant for ex-servicemen.
Read the order below: