The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a separate merit list for women candidates belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the 2021 recruitment for the posts of Sub-Inspector (Civil Police), Platoon Commander (PAC), and Fire Officer.
Justice S.S. Shamshery passed the order while allowing a batch of petitions filed by Neha Sharma and 53 other candidates who challenged the manner in which horizontal reservation for women under the EWS category was implemented.
The petitioners argued that while 20% horizontal reservation for women was notified, the state authorities wrongly clubbed the seats reserved for women under the general category (722) and EWS category (181), thereby preparing a combined merit list. As a result, only 34 EWS women benefited from the recruitment, far below the 181 seats earmarked for them.
The court held that such clubbing was contrary to law and deprived many eligible EWS women candidates of their rightful reservation. “The state failed to show any rule, order or government notification authorizing the clubbing of merit lists for general category and EWS women,” the judgment stated.
Rejecting the state’s claim that all 903 horizontally reserved seats for women had been duly filled, the court pointed out that fulfilling the total number is not sufficient if sub-category reservations are not applied separately.
The judgment, dated May 23, emphasizes that horizontal reservation must be applied independently within each vertical category, including EWS, and cannot be merged with the open category list.
The court’s direction is likely to impact the outcome of the recruitment process and could open the door for further claims by similarly affected candidates.
