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The State of Tamil Nadu v. K. Shobana Etc. Etc.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 154Decided 5 Mar 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 3745-3754 of 2020
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari · Justice Hrishikesh Roy

Background

Tamil Nadu invited applications in 2019 for Post Graduate Assistant (Chemistry) teaching posts, with part of the vacancies reserved for Most Backward Classes/Denotified Communities (MBC/DNC), including carried-forward "backlog" vacancies from earlier years. The respondents, MBC/DNC candidates who had scored high enough marks to qualify on pure merit, found that meritorious reserved-category candidates (who should have been slotted into the unreserved "General Turn" on merit) had instead been placed against backlog reserved vacancies, which pushed the respondents out of selection entirely. The Madras High Court's Single Judge and Division Bench both ruled in the respondents' favour, prompting the State's appeal to the Supreme Court over the correct interpretation of Section 27(f) of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the well-established principle, reserved-category candidates who qualify purely on their own merit must first be slotted into the general/open merit list, and only the remaining reserved-category candidates are adjusted against reservation quotas, applies equally to backlog vacancies. The word "first" in Section 27(f) (requiring backlog vacancies to be filled "first", ahead of current-year vacancies) governs only the sequencing among reserved-category vacancies, not whether meritorious reserved candidates get diverted into reserved slots instead of the general list. Applying the three-step approach from its earlier precedents (fill general merit list first, then backlog reserved vacancies, then current-year reserved vacancies), the Court dismissed the State's appeal and upheld the High Court's view that the respondents had been wrongly excluded.

Lesson Learnt

A candidate from a reserved category who qualifies on pure merit must be counted against the unreserved/general vacancies, not adjusted against the reservation quota, reserving him or her against a "backlog" vacancy instead improperly reduces opportunities for other candidates and distorts the purpose of both the general list and the reservation scheme.

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

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