‘There Can Be No Reservations In A Qualifying Exam’: SC Tells Petitioner Seeking EWS Quota In CTET

The Supreme Court on Monday (13 May 2019) clarified that there cannot be any reservation for a qualifying examination.

The court while hearing a plea on implementing the 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) 2019 said that reservation of any sort is only during the admission and for a qualifying exam, reports The Economic Times.

The bench of Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna said that, “For qualifying examinations there cannot be any reservations. This is wholly misconceived. This (CTET) is merely a qualifying examination. The issue of the reservation will come up only at the time of admission.”

The petition filed by Rajneesh Kumar Pandey wanted the EWS reservation in the CTET exam which is to be held on 7 July 2019, claiming that the other petitioners who are represented through the plea belong to an economically weaker section of society.

The court, however, agreed to hear the plea again on 16 May 2019.

A constitutional amendment passed by the parliament on 16 January provided for a 10 per cent reservation to the citizens from general category belonging to the economically weaker sections of society which is in addition to existing reservation policy for the benefit of other reserved categories.