The Allahabad High Court has dismissed appeals seeking the extension of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation to the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh, observing that the recruitment process was completed before the EWS quota was introduced.
A division bench comprising Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Praveen Kumar Giri upheld the earlier decision of a single bench, which had ruled that the appointments were unaffected by the subsequent policy change. The court noted that all appointments to the advertised posts had already been finalized.
“Admittedly, the process of recruitment not only commenced but already concluded. The Secretary of the Board has filed his personal affidavit clearly stating that all appointments are made on 69,000 advertised vacancies of assistant teachers. None of the selected candidates has been impleaded as a party respondent in the present bunch. None of the selections already made is under challenge either,” the bench stated.
The judges explained that the absence of data regarding EWS status at the time of application makes it impractical to implement such reservation retrospectively. “There is nothing on record to show that in the examination form, any of the candidates was required to furnish details of his/her EWS status. It would, therefore, be difficult to ascertain as to who the persons are who would actually be falling in the EWS category,” the order noted.
The bench also highlighted the legal and practical complications that would arise. “In the absence of details in that regard, it would be further difficult to prepare any merit list of the candidates belonging to the EWS category. Even if such details were available, implementation would require displacing 10 per cent of the candidates already appointed under the unreserved category.”
The court further remarked, “The selected persons are already working for the last several years and their appointment is not under challenge. In such circumstances, it would not be a prudent exercise of discretion for this court to issue any direction to extend 10% EWS reservation in the recruitment in question, at this stage, as implementation of such direction would be a mere impossibility.”
