CHANDIGARH: The question whether the candidates belonging to Jat community selected for central government jobs under the other backward class (
OBC) quota, before the Supreme Court set the reservation notification aside, are eligible to continue in service would now be decided by the Punjab and
Haryana high court.
In this case, the petitioners were selected on February 24, 2015, while the OBC quota for Jats was set aside on March 17, 2015.
Taking cognizance of the petitions filed by some Haryana residents against their removal from the central government's banking services after the SC order, the HC has issued notice to the banking division of the Union finance ministry and the State Bank of India (SBI) authorities.
"Short question for consideration in the present petition is whether petitioners' selection and appointment under OBC category is protected with reference to SC decision passed in the case titled as 'Ram Singh and others versus Union of India' or not," HC has observed while issuing notice on the issue.
The matter would now come up for hearing on September 21 for further hearing. The HC, however, also directed the SBI authorities to pass a speaking order on petitioners' representation regarding their reinstatement.
HC has passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by Vikas Chander and others. In May 2014, the SBI had advertised posts for the selection of assistants in clerical cadres. The petitioners belong to the Jat community, which was notified under the OBC quota by the Centre at that time.
They had applied for the job under OBC quota and qualified the written examination as well as the interview. They were declared selected in the final result declared on February 24, 2015.
Meanwhile the OBC quota for Jat community was challenged before the SC, which on March 17, 2015, set aside the OBC quota to Jats.
The offer letter to the selected candidates, issued on May 5, 2015, was withdrawn and their services were terminated midway by the SBI on the grounds that the quota under which they were selected, has been quashed.
Challenging their removal, counsel for the petitioners, advocate Aftab Singh Khara, submitted before the HC that the SC in a subsequent order, passed on April 12, 2016, had clarified that candidates selected prior to the judgment of SC would be considered for appointment.
"In the present petition, the result of the petitioners was declared on February 24, whereas the SC verdict setting aside OBC quota for Jats came on March 17, 2015," Khara had argued seeking reinstatement of petitioners.
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