The Gujarat High Court today held that candidates of reserved category who have availed of age relaxation cannot be included in the merit list of general category for jobs even if they have got enough marks and they must come through merit list of their respective category.
The division bench of Justices M R Shah and G R Udhvani allowed an appeal filed by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) which had challenged the order of a single judge who had held that candidates of reserved category, even if they avail of age relaxation, should be considered in general category if they have obtained a place in merit list.
As per the existing policy, age relaxation upto five years is given to male candidates in SC, ST, and Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) categories. In case of female candidates, it is upto ten years.
General category applicants must be below 28 years old.
Justice S R Brahmbhatt had in September 2013 held that even if the reserved category candidates availed of age relaxation, they should be considered in the general category if they have obtained more marks then the last general category candidate.
The HC had then acted on a plea filed by Naresh Parmar and 99 others.
Petitioners of reserved category, who were not selected for jobs, had challenged GPSC's decision of not considering some others who had obtained higher marks than the last candidate of general category due to the age bar.
Their contention was if these candidate could get a place in the general category, it would create vacancies in the reserved list and other SC or ST or SEBC aspirants can be accommodated.
The division bench today upheld GPSC lawyer Dipak Shukla's argument that if a candidate has taken the benefit of age relaxation (by virtue of being a SC/ST/SEBC) then he or she should not occupy a place in the general list.
