SC rejects plea of OBC quota of Jat applicants in Bank PO exam

New Delhi, Jul 21: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea of Jat applicants, who have cleared various stages of Probationary Officers recruitment exam under the reserved OBC category, that they be considered for the jobs.

The court, which on March 17 had set aside the erstwhile UPA government's notification to include Jats in the central list of OBCs to accord quota benefits to them, said that the issue has already been decided and there was no "vested" right in favour of Jat applicants.

"If none of the persons have been given the letter of appointments then our judgement will apply," a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said.

At the outset, senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for some of the applicants, said that they have cleared various stages of the entrance test and then the verdict, quashing the Centre's reservation notification, came.

She cited various judgements to buttress the case that the verdict be made applicable "prospectively". Jaising, however, also said, "this case does not go beyond the discretion of the court."

The applicants, belonging to Jat community, had cleared certain stages of the PO examination under the OBC category. However, they could not get the appointment letters on account of the consequences of the verdict.

Earlier also, the court had dismissed a plea of Jat students seeking benefits of reservation under OBC in the ongoing process of admission in post-graduate (PG) medical and dental courses.

It had said that the issue has already been decided and there was no "vested" right in favour of Jat students.

Earlier, while setting aside the March 4, 2014 notification on the matter, the court had said that previous "possible wrong inclusions" cannot be the basis of further inclusion and reservation should be given only to the "most distressed".

PTI