Ritika Singh Sisodiya/ TNNLucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has held that meritorious candidates belonging to reserved categories must be treated as candidates of the unreserved category at the screening stage if they secure marks above the minimum cut-off prescribed for the unreserved category without availing any relaxation.The division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order on Tuesday while allowing a special appeal filed by Bhavna Yadav and others. The bench observed that the marks obtained in the screening examination have a substantial bearing on final selection. Under the advertisement, 75% of the marks obtained in the screening examination and 25% of the interview marks are taken into account for preparing the final merit list. The case relates to the recruitment to the post of Swasthya Shiksha Adhikari. In its advertisement dated Dec 22, 2025, the UPPSC had provided that candidates belonging to reserved categories would be adjusted against the unreserved category only at the stage of final selection, provided they had not availed any concession in the qualifying standard at the screening examination stage. The petitioners challenged this condition as well as the commission’s office memorandum. The bench held Section 3(6) of the UP Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994, does not impose any restriction that migration of a reserved-category candidate to the unreserved category on the basis of merit can take place only at the stage of final selection. The court held the office memorandum would not apply to the recruitment in question and set aside the relevant condition in the advertisement.The commission has been directed to review the applicability of the office memorandum within three months. The state govt has also been directed to formulate and clarify its policy on the issue within three months.
