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Surinder Singh v. Punjab State Electricity Board

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 6957 of 2009)Decided 25 Sept 2014
Civil Appeal No. 6957 of 2009
Justice J.S. Khehar · Justice Arun Mishra

Background

Surinder Singh was appointed an accounts officer against a backward-class vacancy after scoring higher than a rival candidate. The rival challenged his eligibility, arguing his own professional income put him in the creamy layer. The High Court accepted that argument by adding the candidate's income to the parental criteria in the governing policy.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court restored Singh's appointment and disposed of the connected petition on the same basis. The applicable central instructions and clarifications, adopted in Punjab and by the electricity board, assessed creamy-layer status through the parents' status or income. They expressly excluded the candidate's own income and that of the spouse from this assessment. The High Court could not rewrite those criteria by reading the candidate's earnings into them.

Lesson Learnt

Reservation eligibility must be tested against the governing criteria, not an improvised income calculation. Under the policy applied in this case, a candidate's own earnings did not establish creamy-layer exclusion.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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