Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking caste-based recruitment in paramilitary forces

LE Desk

New Delhi, July 5, 2021: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking caste-based recruitment in the paramilitary forces. 

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and V Ramasubhramanian refused to alter the existing state-wise recruitment rule, India Today reported.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Barun Sinha argued for caste-based recruitment criteria for filling up the vacancies at national level. “Sixty-thousand vacancies were announced and 55,000 have been filled. Petitioners have higher marks in select-list. We seek admission on remaining seats.”

Justice Banerjee questioned the argument saying, “You cannot claim caste benefits when you have migrated to another place.”

Every state has its own list of castes that qualify for reservation in employment under Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). It is possible one caste that is entitled to reservation in one state is out of the quota jurisdiction in some other states. Sinha pressed further saying, “This is Central Armed Police Force [CAPF] for all over India”, reported India Today.

But Sinha’s argument was countered by Justice V Ramasubhramanian who said, “You are comparing a student in Assam who has scored more than the one in Andhra Pradesh. The notification says seats will be filled state-wise.”

In a writ petition filed under Article 32, Justice V Ramasubhramanian said, “You want to compare states. That cannot be done.”

Justice Banerjee said, “A group of candidates has already approached the Kerala High Court [in the same matter]”.

Sinha’s argument was that “there has to be uniformity in the Union scheme” but it failed to impress the judges. Justice Banerjee said that “recruitment has to be state-wise” as per the notification.

Justice V Ramasubhramanian suggested the counsel to “go to the high court”. Sinha dug in telling the court that “it will create multiple proceedings” to which Justice Ramasubhramanian responded saying “that is our problem, not yours” before dismissing the petition, India Today said.