In Brief
The State of Tamil Nadu's Teachers Recruitment Board invited applications for Post Graduate Assistant positions, including Chemistry posts with 356 vacancies (117 reserved for Most Backward Classes and DE notified Communities). Meritorious candidates from reserved categories who qualified through open merit were placed against backlog reserved vacancies rather than general vacancies, excluding other candidates. The Supreme Court dismissed the State's appeals, holding that reserved category candidates achieving selection on merit must be adjusted against general vacancies, not reserved quotas. Section 27(f) of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants Act addresses only the reservation mechanism post-selection and does not apply to merit-based general vacancy filling. The proper method is filling merit-based vacancies first, then backlog reserved vacancies, then current year reserved vacancies.
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