Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 8: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has held that candidates belonging to any of vertical reservation categories are entitled to be selected in open or general category as such held the selection of category candidate for vertical reservation legitimate.
The selection of RBA candidate after operation of waiting listing was challenged on the ground that the reservation under RBA category is horizontal reservation and his migration from RBA to OM category is not permissible.
Police issued advertisement notification by virtue of which posts were advertised in the Police Department for appointment as Constables and the aggrieved-petitioner applied for the post and after evaluating the merits of the candidates issued tentative selection list of the candidates for various categories.
The case of the aggrieved petitioner is that the authorities should not have offered the resultant fourth 4 vacancy under the OM category due to non-joining of selected candidates, to the private respondent who had already been selected under the RBA category and had joined the service.
He states that the authorities should have considered his case from the waiting list having equal number of marks for the fourth vacancy on account of non-joining of four selected candidates. The main ground taken by the aggrieved-petitioner in his petition and argued by his counsel is that the Police have treated the RBA category as vertical reservation instead of considering it as horizontal reservation and by this wrongful categorization act, the selection authorities allowed the migration of private respondent (selected candidate) from RBA category to OM category, depriving the right of the aggrieved-petitioner to be appointed against the fourth vacancy after four selected candidates did not join the police department in district Baramulla and the migration effected consumed the quota of the OM category for which the petitioner was entitled because he was fourth in the waiting list.
The CAT bench of Harvinder Kaur Oberoi and Dr. Chhabilendra Roul after having gone through the records of the case and heard the arguments carefully concluded that contention of petitioner counsel is not acceptable to the extent that reservation under RBA category is horizontal reservation and hence the migration of private selected candidate from RBA category to OM category because of securing higher marks is not permissible.
“We do not accept the contention that because he has consumed the point under the horizontal reservation category, he could not have migrated to OM category despite scoring higher or equal marks as the last selected candidate under OM category”, The bench said.
The bench has held that candidates belonging to any of vertical reservation categories are entitled to be selected in open or general category and dealing with the instant case, the reservation under RBA category is a vertical reservation and hence the selection of selected candidate after operation of the waiting list in the OM category is legitimate.
The bench while underscoring the Article 16 (4) of the Constitution which contemplates vertical reservation is for SC/ST and Other Backward Classes, whereas horizontal reservation refers to equal opportunity provided to other benefits such as women, veterans, the transgender community, individual with a disabilities, etc., cutting through vertical categories under article 15(3) of the constitution.
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