Thursday, 25 August 2022 | PNS | Nainital
The Uttarakhand high court has ordered a stay on the State government’s 2006 government order providing 30 per cent horizontal reservation to women with State domicile in the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission’s (UKPSC’s) examination for Uttarakhand combined services, subordinate service posts. Ordering a stay on the government order dated July 24, 2006, the division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe permitted the petitioners to appear in the main examination.
The division bench issued these directions while hearing on the petition of Haryana’s Pavitra Chauhan and others on Wednesday. The petitioners’ counsel sought interim permission for them to appear in the main examination to be organised in October, which was strongly opposed by the counsel representing the commission. According to the petitioners, the result of the preliminary examination held for more than 200 posts in various departments came out on May 26 this year. Two cut off lists were issued for the unreserved category. The cut off for women with Uttarakhand domicile was 79 while the women who filed the petition in the high court stated that they had scored more than 79 in the examination, despite which they were considered ineligible.
The petitioners said that this happened because women with Uttarakhand domicile were being given 30 per cent horizontal reservation as per the government orders of July 18, 2001 and July 24, 2006 which is unconstitutional. The counsel for the petitioners, Kartikeya Hari Gupta said that according to Article 16 of the Constitution, any State cannot provide reservation on the basis of residence, adding that only the parliament has this authority. The State can provide reservation only to economically weaker and backward sections. After hearing the arguments, the high court ordered a stay on the 2006 government order and granted permission to the petitioners to sit in the main examination.
