Age,fee relaxation permissible for SC,STs,OBC in general category too,says apex court

The apex court said such relaxation cannot be termed as violative of the Constitutional provisions of equality or the norm that reservatons in general should not exceed the 50 percent quota fixed by it in the Indra Sawhney case.

“Reservations are a mode to achieve the equality of opportunity guaranteed under Article 16 (1) of the

Constitution of India. Concessions and relaxations in fee or age provided to the reserved category candidates to enable them to compete and seek benefit of reservation is merely an aid to reservation.

“The concessions and relaxations place the candidates at par with general category candidates. It is only thereafter that the merit of the candidates is to be determined without any further concessions in favour of the reserved category candidates,” a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Surinder Singh Nijjar said in a judgement.