Telangana High Court: Special Reservations to Be Considered Horizontally:
The Telangana High Court criticized the state government and the residential educational institution’s recruitment board for categorizing special reservations as vertical reservations rather than horizontal ones when hiring teaching positions at residential educational institutions.
These special reservations encompass categories such as women, physically challenged individuals, ex-service personnel, and sportspersons, among others.
Justice P. Madhavi Devi of the Telangana High Court issued interim instructions to the authorities, instructing them to adhere to the horizontal reservation system, as stipulated by the Supreme Court in the case of Rajesh Kumar Daria vs. Rajasthan Public Service Commission.
The court also reprimanded state authorities for allocating roster points for special reservations in the recruitment process. The judge handled a petition from unemployed youth who had applied for teaching staff, librarian, and physical director positions at degree and Intermediate residential educational institutions operated by the state government. They alleged that authorities were using special reservations as a pretext to allocate 100 roster points and, based on these points, were implementing vertical reservations instead of horizontal reservations.
Following a review of the case, the judge issued an interim order to adopt horizontal reservations and instructed the government and recruitment board to provide their responses.
Vertical reservation pertains to social reservations in favor of SC, ST, and OBCs, whereas special reservations benefit physically handicapped individuals, women, etc., under Articles 16(1) and 15(3). When a vertical reservation is established for a particular group, candidates from that group can compete for non-reserved positions based on merit. If they are appointed to non-reserved positions based on their qualifications, their numbers are not counted against the quota for horizontal reservations.
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