later stage: HCAllahabad, Dec 7 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has heldthat cut-off marks for reserved category in a recruitmentprocess cannot be decreased in a later stage just because somevacancies of reserved quota remained unfilled.
Dismissing a petition filed by Bhuvnesh Pachauri, anunsuccessful candidate belonging to the "Dependents of FreedomFighters" (General) category, Justice Siddharth observed,"Petitioner participated in recruitment process and laterchallenged select list and prayed that cut-off marks forreserved category should be lowered to fill vacant posts."However, once the petitioner agreed to the procedure ofselection but was unsuccessful, he cannot turn around andprotest against the terms of the process of selection, thecourt said.
Pachauri had applied for the post of junior engineer(Civil) for which an advertisement was issued by the UttarPradesh Jal Nigam on October 3, 2013.
He appeared in the written examination in 2014 afterwhich only five candidates belonging to that category werecalled to appear in the interview.
The petitioner's contention was that according to law, 2per cent seats were required to be reserved for the"Dependents of Freedom Fighters".
The total seats advertised were 469, hence 9 posts wererequired to be reserved for the aforesaid category, but onlyfive candidates were invited for interview and all of themwere selected, he claimed.
UP Jal Nigam's argument was that the cut-off marks forqualifying for the interview was fixed as 42, but thepetitioner obtained only 34 marks and therefore he was notcalled for the interview.
Likewise, the remaining four posts remained unfilledbecause no one obtained the cut-off marks.
The court after hearing both the parties observed, "Norelief can be granted to the petitioner regarding his prayerfor lowering of cut-off marks for his social category ofreservation. However, it is open for the petitioner to applyfor reserved vacancies carried over for the next recruitmentas per state reservation law." PTI COR RAJZMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.