Screening exam forms integral part of final selection: Allahabad HC

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday held that meritorious reserved-category candidates must be treated as applicants from the unreserved category at the screening stage itself if they secure marks above the minimum cut-off prescribed for the unreserved category without availing any relaxation or concession

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday held that meritorious reserved-category candidates must be treated as applicants from the unreserved category at the screening stage itself if they secure marks above the minimum cut-off prescribed for the unreserved category without availing any relaxation or concession. With this observation, the court directed the state government to formulate and clarify its policy on the issue within three months.

The court held that meritorious reserved-category candidates must be treated as applicants from the unreserved category at the screening stage itself. (For Representation)

The division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla while allowing a special appeal filed by Bhavna Yadav and others also said marks obtained in the screening examination have a substantial bearing on the final selection.

The bench observed that the screening examination in the recruitment in question was not merely a shortlisting or preliminary exercise.

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. Therefore, the screening examination forms an integral part of the final selection process, the court said.

The case relates to the recruitment to the post of Swasthya Shiksha Adhikari. In its advertisement dated December 22, 2025, the UP Public Service Commission provided that reserved categories’ candidates would be adjusted against the unreserved category only at the stage of final selection, provided they had not availed any benefit or concession in the qualifying standard at the screening examination stage.

The petitioners challenged this condition as well as the Commission’s office memorandum dated January 9, 2020. In its judgment, the bench held that 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 or adjustment 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 that the January 9, 2020 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 government has also been directed to formulate and clarify its policy on the issue within three months