NAINITAL: In a landmark judgment, the Uttarakhand High Court has stayed the state government’s order of July 24, 2006, giving 30 per cent horizontal reservation to women candidates of Uttarakhand origin in the examination conducted for the posts of Uttarakhand Combined Service, Senior Service of the State Public Service Commission.
A division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice R S Khulbe pronounced the verdict on Wednesday after hearing a petition filed by Haryana’s Pavitra Chauhan and 15 others.
The petitioners had sought interim permission to appear for the main examination to be held in October, which was strongly opposed by the commission’s counsel but the court has allowed the petitioners to appear in the main examination.
Two cut-off lists of the unreserved category were taken out in the examination.
The petition said they were not allowed to appear for the state services main examination despite securing more marks than the cut-off set for domicile women of the state in the preliminary test held on April 3 this year.
The counsel for the petitioners, Kartikey Hari Gupta, argued that the state government's order dated July 24, 2006 on the reservation was in violation of Articles 14, 16, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
Not allowing the aggrieved women candidates to appear in the main examination was an act of discrimination against them, he contended.
The state government had no power to provide domicile-based reservations.
The Constitution of India allows reservation on the basis of domicile only by an Act of Parliament, Gupta said.
(With PTI Inputs)