New Delhi, Sept 21: In an important ruling affecting millions of students appearing for civil services examinations across the country, the Supreme Court has said public service commissions cannot lay down minimum efficiency standards for selection of suitable candidates as it was a policy matter to be decided by the government. The apex court upheld a judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that reversed the Punjab State Public Service Commission's decision to prescribe a screening test and fix 45 per cent minimum qualifying cut-off marks for general category and 40 per cent for SC candidates for recruitment of medical officers in 1997.
"It would be a matter of policy to be decided by the state government as to what measures, if necessary, may be provided regarding reservations vis-a-vis maintenance of efficiency in services," a division bench of Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice Arun Kumar said while deciding five identical appeals on the issue.
"Where no special qualification or any prescribed standard of efficiency over and above the eligibility criteria is provided by the rules or the state, it would not be for the commission to impose any extra qualification supposedly for maintaining minimum efficiency which, it thinks may be necessary, the bench further said."
The commission had in 1997 invited applications for recruitment of 500 medical officers out of which 125 were reserved for SC candidates. Sixty two SC posts were meant for Balmikis and Majhabi Sikhs while the remaining were for the general category of SCs.
Bureau Report