Source: Supreme Court

Why in News?

A bench of Justice Bela M. Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma held that the reservation provided to persons with disability was in the form of overall horizontal reservation and hence there was no need for a separate cut off.          

• The Supreme Court held this in the case of Rekha Sharma v. The Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur & Anr. 

What is the Background of Rekha Sharma v. The Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur Case? 

• The High Court of Rajasthan had issued an advertisement for the direct recruitment of 120 posts of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre. 
• Two appellants Rekha Sharma and Ratan Lal both having a permanent disability also applied for the post. 
• Both were declared unsuccessful in the Preliminary Examination. 
• The result provided cut off marks for every category except the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities.  
• It was the case of the Appellants that their fundamental rights under Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950 (COI) was violated and that it was also violative of Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 (RJS Rules) read with Rajasthan Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2018. 
• The Writ Petition was dismissed by the High Court. 
• Thus, appeal was filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court. 

What were the Court’s Observations? 

• The Court first of all analyzed the vacancies floated and observed that the number of seats reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities were 4 out of total 89 vacancies (for year 2020) and 1 out of total 31 vacancies (for year 2021). 
• The Court observed that the reservation in favor of Persons with Disabilities was an Overall Horizontal Reservation and was not Compartmentalized reservation. 
• The Court observed that the RJS Rules, 2010 do not make it mandatory for the respondents to declare a separate cut off marks for Persons with benchmark Disabilities.
• It was observed that the reservation for women (widow or divorcee) was compartmentalized reservation whereas the reservation for the persons with benchmark disabilities was overall reservation.
• Thus, the Court held that non fixation of separate cut off for persons with benchmark disabilities cannot be said to be arbitrary or violative of any Fundamental Rights of the appellants.    

What is Reservation? 

• Reservation is a form of positive discrimination, created to promote equality among marginalized sections, so as to protect them from social and historical injustice. 
• Generally, it means giving preferential treatment to marginalized sections of society in employment and access to education. 
• It was also originally developed to correct years of discrimination and to give a boost to disadvantaged groups. 
• In India, people have been historically discriminated on the basis of caste.

What are the Provisions Related to Reservations in Constitution of India, 1950 (COI)? 

• Part XVI of the Constitution of India, 1950 (COI) deals with reservation of SC and ST in Central and State legislatures. 
• Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the COI enabled the State and Central Governments to reserve seats in government services for the members of the SC and ST. 
• The Constitution was amended by the Constitution (77th Amendment) Act, 1995 and a new clause (4A) was inserted in Article 16 to enable the government to provide reservation in promotion. 
• Later, clause (4A) was modified by the Constitution (85th Amendment) Act, 2001 to provide consequential seniority to SC and ST candidates promoted by giving reservation. 
• Constitutional 81st Amendment Act, 2000 inserted Article 16 (4 B) which enables the state to fill the unfilled vacancies of a year which are reserved for SCs/STs in the succeeding year, thereby nullifying the ceiling of fifty percent reservation on total number of vacancies of that year. 
• Article 330 and 332 of COI provides for specific representation through reservation of seats for SCs and STs in the Parliament and in the State Legislative Assemblies respectively. 
• Article 243D provides reservation of seats for SCs and STs in every Panchayat. 
• Article 233T provides reservation of seats for SCs and STs in every Municipality. 
• Article 335 of the constitution says that the claims of STs and STs shall be taken into consideration constituently with the maintenance of efficacy of the administration. 

What are the Types of Reservations? 

In the case of Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that there are two types of reservations: 

• Vertical Reservations 
  • They are the highest form of special provisions intended exclusively for members of backward classes SC, ST and OBC. 
  • This is covered under Article 16 (4) of COI.  
  • They cannot exceed 50%. 
• Horizontal Reservations 
  • They are lesser form of special provisions and are intended for other disadvantaged citizens (like disabled, women etc). 
  • These are provided for under Article 16 (1) of COI. 
  • Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations.  
  • Types of Horizontal Reservation: 
  • Compartmentalized Horizontal Reservation 
    • In this type of reservation proportionate seats are reserved in each vertical reserved category. 
    • An example would be if the total number of vacancies are 89. In case of compartmentalized reservation they can be divided as follows:

• • Overall Horizontal Reservation 
    • Here the reservation is not specific to each vertical category. 
    • The reservation provided here is provided on the total posts advertised i.e. such reservation is not specific to each vertical category. 
    • An example would be if the total number of vacancies are 89 and out of the total seats 4 are reserved for Person with Disabilities, it would be overall Horizontal Reservation.

Which is a Landmark Case Law on Applicability of Overall and Compartmentalized Horizontal Reservations? 

• Anil Kumar Gupta and Others v. State of U.P. and Others (1995) 
  • The difference between overall and compartmentalized reservation is as follows: