The Supreme Court has clarified in an important case related to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination that if a candidate avails the benefit of reservation at any stage of the examination, then he cannot claim appointment to a general category seat, even if his marks or rank is better than that of the general category candidate. This decision was taken on Tuesday (January 6, 2026) by Justice J.K. The bench of Justice Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi pronounced. The court accepted the appeal of the Central Government and canceled the decision of the Karnataka High Court.
The Karnataka High Court had ordered the appointment of a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate in the general category cadre. The High Court’s argument was that the candidate concerned had secured a better rank than the general category candidate in the final merit list. However, the Supreme Court disagreed with this decision and said that since the candidate had availed the benefit of reservation in the preliminary examination, he cannot claim appointment to the unreserved (General) seat.
What did the Supreme Court say?
The apex court said in its decision that if a candidate avails the benefit of reservation exemption in any stage of the examination, be it preliminary examination or others, then he cannot be included in the list of general category candidates under the Examination Rules 2013. The court clarified that merely by performing better in the later stages, a reserved category candidate cannot claim a general category seat.
What is the whole matter?
This controversy is related to the Indian Forest Service (IFS) examination 2013. The examination was conducted in three stages—preliminary examination, main examination and interview. In the preliminary examination, the cutoff for general category was 267 marks, while for Scheduled Caste category it was fixed at 233 marks. SC candidate Mr. Kiran passed the exam on the basis of reserved cutoff by scoring 247.18 marks, while general category candidate Antony S. Mariappa crossed the general cutoff with 270.68 marks.
Despite being ahead in merit, did not get general seat
In the final merit list G. Kiran’s rank was 19, while Antony’s rank was 37, but at the time of cadre allocation, there was only one General Insider vacancy available in Karnataka and no SC Insider vacancy. The central government gave this general insider seat to Antony, while G. Kiran was allotted Tamil Nadu cadre. This decision was challenged in the High Court, which has now been overturned by the Supreme Court.
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