No place for reserved category candidates in gen merit list:HC

The Gujarat High Court today held that various reserved category candidates availing of age relaxation cannot claim a place in the general category merit list for the government jobs.
The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi gave this ruling on a plea by the Gujarat Public Service Commission that challenged a single-judge bench order of the court which had allowed inclusion of two backward classes candidates in the general category merit list.
Two Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) candidates Nirav Makwana and Dharmendra Patel had approached the single-judge bench of Justice K M Thaker earlier challenging the GPSC's merit list for 2014.

They had contended that the GPSC did not consider SEBC candidates in the general category even when their scores in the examination for the posts of assistant conservator of forests and range forest officer were higher than the cut-off point.
The petitioners said they had got more marks than the last candidate in the merit list of general category.
They wanted jobs in the general category so that other SEBC candidates could make it to the merit list of the reserved category, the petitioners said.
The GPSC had countered their arguments before Justice Thaker saying said as per the government's policy, they can't claim a place in the open category after availing of the concession in the age limit given to the reserved category candidates.

Justice Thaker had given the decision in 2015 in favour of the petitioners following which the GPSC had moved the division bench in appeal.