SC decries denial of reserved jobs to OBCs relying on unofficial caste data

The Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of relying on unofficial, private data on Other Backward Classes to deny reservation in jobs.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao strongly disapproved the tendency to refer to private publications, instead of notifications of the National Commission for Backward Classes and the OBCs list prepared by the Central Government.

The court, while dealing with a batch of petitions filed by a group of candidates from Uttarakhand, who had applied for the post of CRPF constables, found that they were not considered for the posts reserved for OBCs only on the ground that they belonged to castes not listed in "Swamy's Compilation on Reservations and Concessions".

"This practice of relying upon private books for the purpose of defeating the rights of citizens is deprecated," the bench said after noting the candidates were not considered for appointment for the posts advertised in 2010.

After going through other relevant material, the bench directed the Central Government to consider the candidates for appointment even if they were over-aged,   provided they fulfilled fitness criteria.