The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 7, 2026) said that unreserved vacancies for persons with disabilities (PWD) are like an open pool. The main basis of selection on these is merit i.e. eligible candidates of any social or special category can be appointed on these vacancies.
Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh’s bench has given this decision by canceling the decision of Calcutta High Court, in which general category candidates with less marks were given priority over OBC candidates. He said that the unreserved category is not a separate social category, rather it is an area open to all.
The Supreme Court ruled that a more qualified PWD candidate belonging to a reserved category like OBC, SC or ST cannot be denied an unreserved PWD post merely because a candidate from the general category is also available.
Justice N Kotishwar Singh, the judge who wrote the judgment, said, ‘It is absolutely clear in the reservation law that unreserved/open category does not mean any social/community category like SC, ST or OBC. In other words, any post falling under unreserved or open category does not belong to any particular social category; It is an open field for all categories of candidates – in the sense that it is open to all candidates, whether they belong to any social or particular category or not.’
This matter is related to a recruitment related to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-2 in West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited. In the notification, one post was specifically reserved for unreserved (Person with Disability-Weak Vision). There was a dispute between two candidates for this post, one of them was from General category, who had weak vision and scored 55.667 marks, while the other candidate was from OBC category, who also had weak vision and scored 66.667 marks.
The company appointed the OBC candidate to this post on the basis of his high qualifications. The general category candidate challenged this decision and said that he is an eligible unreserved candidate, hence he should have got this vacancy and the name of the OBC category candidate should be considered only when no disabled candidate from the unreserved category is available.
The single bench of the High Court rejected the petition of the general category candidate, while the division bench overturned the company’s decision and directed the employer to appoint the general category candidate with less qualification. The company challenged this decision of the division bench in the Supreme Court.
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