In a ruling that sharpens the understanding of horizontal reservations, the Supreme Court of India held that a post reserved horizontally for persons with disabilities within the unreserved category cannot be restricted only to general-category applicants. Instead, any candidate — including those from SC, ST, or OBC backgrounds — may compete, provided they share the disability qualification and secure higher merit.
The bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh examined a dispute involving recruitment to a Junior Civil Engineer position in the West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd.. The vacancy had been advertised as UR (PwD-LV), meaning an unreserved seat horizontally earmarked for candidates with low vision or blindness.
An OBC-A candidate with the same disability category scored higher marks but was overlooked after the Calcutta High Court concluded that the presence of a general-category PwD candidate meant the post should go to him, regardless of comparative performance.
The top court disagreed. It clarified that once a seat is placed in the unreserved bracket, merit alone governs the selection — even if the candidates belong to socially reserved groups. The horizontal condition, the bench said, merely limits eligibility to those sharing the disability category, not their social background.
The judges emphasized that denying a higher-scoring candidate simply because he belonged to a reserved community would defeat the principle of equality. A horizontally reserved PwD post in the unreserved category, they noted, remains open to all disabled candidates across social classifications.
The Court also addressed a clause in the recruitment notice suggesting that candidates from other categories could be considered only if no UR-PwD applicant was available. This, it held, operates as a fallback mechanism — not a rule that overrides merit. A less-qualified general-category candidate cannot displace a more meritorious disabled candidate from a reserved community.
Since the OBC-A candidate had not relied on any relaxation and had secured better marks, the Court confirmed his selection. The judgment effectively restored his appointment and reinforced that merit must prevail when competing for unreserved posts, even within horizontal reservation frameworks.
The decision is likely to influence future recruitment processes, ensuring that disability-based reservations within open categories remain genuinely open — and governed by performance rather than social labels. ✍️
