SC asks Centre why disabled candidates are allocated reserved seats even when they score above cut-off marks

A Supreme Court judgment sought a response from the Centre on why there is no “upward movement” for disabled candidates in exams/jobs even though they score over the cut-off marks for unreserved category.

The judgment by a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said disabled candidates continue to avail reservation for the disabled category instead of being included in the general category, despite scoring marks above the cut-off threshhold.

Justice Mehta, who authored the verdict, pointed out that this inevitably prevents disabled candidates who have scored lesser marks a berth in the reserved category for PwD.

Justice Mehta said such an attitude of stagnant was in violation of Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016.

Section 34, which deals with reservation, mandates that “every appropriate government shall appoint in every government establishment, not less than four per cent. of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities”.