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Ashwin Jawaharlal Mehta vs. Union of India & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:8075Decided 14 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 3859/2018CNR: DLHC010836892018
Justice Sanjeev Narula

Background

The petitioner's son, who has a hearing impairment, was shortlisted through GATE scores for jobs at Indian Oil Corporation (2014) and ONGC (2017) under the disability quota but was not finally selected because he did not meet the minimum composite/interview cutoff marks, even after the relaxations already given to disabled candidates. The petitioner argued that once a post is reserved for a disability category, any eligible disabled candidate must be appointed, and that unfilled reserved vacancies should trigger further relaxation of standards.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that identifying a post as suitable for persons with a disability does not mean every eligible candidate must be appointed regardless of merit: a genuine, even if relaxed, standard of suitability can still apply, and an unfilled reserved vacancy is meant to be carried forward, not filled by endlessly lowering standards. IOCL had already relaxed its benchmark from 45% to 40% for disabled candidates, and the son's score fell below even that. A later, one-time further relaxation to 30% made in 2018 for accumulated backlog vacancies could not be retroactively applied to the 2014 selection. Similarly, in the ONGC case, there was no power to award a "grace mark" to bridge a shortfall.

Lesson Learnt

Disability reservation guarantees a fair, relaxed opportunity to compete: it does not guarantee appointment regardless of whether a candidate meets even the relaxed minimum standard; unfilled reserved vacancies get carried forward under law, not force-filled.

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