Summary
Under the Gujarat recruitment policy and advertisement governing the forest-service selection, a reserved-category candidate who availed age relaxation could not migrate to an unreserved vacancy. The contrary result in Jitendra Kumar Singh depended on the different Uttar Pradesh scheme expressly permitting such consideration. Age relaxation at the preliminary stage continued through the final stage of this recruitment and was an incident of reservation under the applicable policy.
Issues
- Whether the applicable Gujarat policy permitted migration to an unreserved vacancy after availing reserved-category age relaxation.
- Whether age relaxation at the preliminary stage or the ruling in Jitendra Kumar Singh altered that result.
Held
- The 2000 and 2004 Gujarat circulars required candidates selected with relaxed eligibility standards, including age, to count against reserved posts. The recruitment advertisement also denied age relaxation to reserved candidates applying in the open category. (¶¶ 16–19, 23–25)
- Jitendra Kumar Singh concerned a distinct statutory and administrative scheme expressly making age relaxation immaterial to open-merit consideration. It could not override Gujarat’s converse policy; Deepa and Gaurav Pradhan supported that distinction. (¶ 26–33)
- The attempted distinction between preliminary and final stages was misconceived: a candidate requiring age relaxation initially continued to need it at final selection. On this scheme it was an incident of reservation. (¶ 34–36)
Result
Appeal dismissed; parties directed to bear their own costs.