Tripura High Court clears 1,300 riflemen jobs: Why ‘inside-outside’ quota plea was dismissed
The Tripura High Court was hearing writ petitions filed by unsuccessful candidates challenging the 2019 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) recruitment process.
The high court concluded that there was no illegality in the recruitment authority’s calculation of reservation quotas. (File image, enhanced using AI) Quota news: The Tripura High Court has upheld the recruitment process for more than 1,300 riflemen posts in the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), dismissing a batch of petitions which alleged that the state government breached the constitutional cap on reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
Justice S Datta Purkayastha was hearing writ petitions filed by unsuccessful candidates challenging the 2019 TSR recruitment process, and ruled that reservation percentages must be calculated against the total number of vacancies in the cadre and not by separately considering “inside-state” and “outside-state” quotas.
“Such quota for reserved category of candidates is to be counted against the total vacancy of a particular post or service and not by making any further division in respect of any particular post by referring to inside State quota and outside State quota,” the court said on May 22, rejecting the plea that the recruitment violated Articles 14 (right to equality) and 16 (equality in employment matters) of the Constitution.
Justice S Purkayastha accepted the state’s argument and held that the post of riflemen constituted a single cadre irrespective of whether candidates were selected through inside-state or outside-state quotas. (Image enhanced using AI)
Court finds no violation of reservation law
- The high court accepted the state’s argument and held that the post of riflemen constituted a single cadre irrespective of whether candidates were selected through inside-state or outside-state quotas.
- It noted that the Tripura State Rifles Recruitment Rules did not create separate cadres for the two categories of candidates, and all selected applicants would ultimately serve in the same post.
- Justice Purkayastha observed that when all 1,350 vacancies were considered together, 230 posts reserved for SC candidates amounted to 17.3 per cent while 418 posts reserved for ST candidates came to 30.96 per cent, which complied with the Reservation Act.
- The court therefore concluded that there was no illegality in the recruitment authority’s calculation of reservation quotas.
Recruitment drive triggered legal battle
The dispute arose from a recruitment advertisement issued on March 7, 2019, for filling up riflemen (General Duty) and riflemen (Tradesmen) posts in two India Reserve battalions of TSR. The notification provided for 1,013 vacancies under the “inside-state quota” and 337 vacancies under the “outside-state quota” for riflemen (GD) posts.
Out of the 1,013 inside-state vacancies, 230 were reserved for Scheduled Castes and 418 for Scheduled Tribes.
A group of unsuccessful candidates moved the high court, arguing that the reservation percentages under the inside-state quota crossed the permissible constitutional limit of 50 per cent since the combined reservation for SC and ST candidates exceeded 60 per cent.
The petitioners claimed this violated Section 4 of the Tripura Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Act, 1991, as well as constitutional guarantees of equality.
Petitioners relied on Supreme Court judgments
Senior Advocate Somik Deb, appearing for the petitioners, relied on landmark Supreme Court judgments, including the case, which laid down that reservations should ordinarily not exceed 50 per cent.
The petitioners also cited later judgments, including those where the Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutional significance of the 50 per cent reservation ceiling.
Apart from the reservation issue, the candidates also challenged the recruitment notification’s requirement that applicants apply through designated venues based on their police station jurisdictions. According to the petitioners, this unfairly restricted candidates from choosing centres convenient to them.
Total cadre strength must be counted: State
The Tripura government defended the recruitment process, arguing that the petitioners had wrongly split a single cadre into two artificial categories.
Advocate General S M Chakraborty submitted that the total number of riflemen (general duty) vacancies was 1350, and reservations had to be calculated against the entire cadre strength. According to the state, once all vacancies were counted together, reservation for SC candidates came to roughly 17 per cent and for ST candidates around 31 per cent, which was within statutory limits.
The state further argued that the petitioners had participated in the recruitment process without objection and approached the court only after failing to secure selection.
Challenge to venue restrictions rejected
On the issue of designated recruitment venues, the high court held that recruitment authorities were entitled to devise administrative procedures for receiving applications and conducting examinations.
The court also pointed out that the petitioners had already participated in the process through the specified venues and could not subsequently challenge the same procedure after being unsuccessful.
All petitions dismissed
Holding that the petitions lacked merit, the high court dismissed all the writ petitions and disposed of the connected interim applications without costs.
The ruling is expected to provide significant clarity on how reservation percentages are to be calculated in recruitment processes involving separate state and outside-state quotas, particularly in uniformed services where a common cadre structure exists.
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