In Brief
This case involved six candidates (Sakshi Arha, Jyoti Beniwal, Priyanka, Bhavya Kulhar, Neha Batar, Nikhil Kataria, Sunil Singh Gurjar, Kuldeep Bhatia, and Parul Jain) who applied for Civil Judge posts under reserved categories (OBC-NCL, MBC-NCL, EWS) in Rajasthan. They were disqualified because their category eligibility certificates were issued after the application deadline (31.08.2021), despite scoring higher than the cut-off marks in their respective reserved categories. The High Court upheld the disqualification, relying on the principle that eligibility must be assessed as of the last date of application. The Supreme Court split 2:1: Justice Rastogi would have allowed the appeals, holding that the date of certificate issuance is procedural, not substantive eligibility, and the candidates indisputably belonged to their claimed categories when they applied. Justice Trivedi would have dismissed the appeals, holding that the last date of application is the date by which the certificate must exist, especially given that OBC-NCL and EWS are dynamic, not static, categories. The split necessitated referral to a larger bench.
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