Hyper Technicality Cannot be a Ground for Taking Away Relaxations Provided to ST Communities: Delhi HC

A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon of Delhi High Court held that the reservations/ relaxations Provided to Scheduled Tribe communities cannot be taken away on technical grounds.  

Reservations/relaxations are envisaged to compensate the disadvantages Schedule Tribes have faced for generations.- Delhi HC  

In the present case, Lekhraj Meena had applied for a vacancy notified by Central Industrial Security Force. However, his candidature was rejected at the recruitment stage owing to a delay in submitting a requisite certificate. The certificate in question was required to be furnished for verifying the hight relaxation for ST candidates. 

The petitioner had to go to his home town in Rajasthan to obtain the prescribed certificate. The fact that that the district Tehsildar misconstrued the certification mandate added to the petitioner's woes. The prevailing farmer protests also caused further delay in submitting the form on time.

The respondent in his counter-arguments pointed out that the petitioner was allowed additional 5 days for completing the prescribed certificate but still could not do so.

On the basis of arguments, the Court observed that the District Tehsildar was "clearly wrong" in denying the certificate for height relaxation to the petitioner for the reason that he did not belong to the hilly areas. Further, the bench added that apart from providing relaxations or reservation to members of the ST community, there should be relaxation in implementing the reservations otherwise it will render the purpose of implementing the reservations ineffective. 

Accordingly, the court allowed the petition and directed the respondents to consider the petitioner's submission so that he can take part in the recruitment process in accordance with the law and procedure.