A Scheduled Caste candidate competes in open competition, takes no relaxation of any kind, and is selected on exactly the standard applied to general candidates. Against which quota is that appointment recorded? The answer is the unreserved quota, and the number of registers in which it is recorded the other way is the reason this part exists.
The rule
The governing instructions are Office Memorandum No. 36011/1/98-Estt.(Res.) dated 1 July 1998 for direct recruitment, and Office Memorandum No. 36028/17/2001-Estt.(Res.) dated 11 July 2002 for promotion.
SC, ST and OBC candidates in direct recruitment, and SC and ST candidates in promotion, appointed on their own merit and not owing to reservation, should not be shown against the reserved quota. They are adjusted against the unreserved quota.
Only those who are selected on the same standard as applied to general candidates are treated as own-merit candidates.
The fifty per cent limit on reservation is computed excluding reserved-category candidates appointed or promoted on their own merit.
What counts as the same standard
This is the part that decides the answer in a real case. A candidate is an own-merit candidate only where no relaxation of any kind was applied to get them in — not a relaxed qualifying standard, not relaxed age, not a fee concession, not relaxed qualifications.
Recent decisions have taken a strict view of this and have extended it across the whole selection process rather than the final stage alone. A candidate who took relaxed standards at a preliminary stage has been held not to be an own-merit candidate even where the final marks would have cleared the general cut-off, on the reasoning that general standards means the standards applied throughout the process.
So the question to ask in the section is not "did this candidate score above the general cut-off". It is "was any concession or relaxation applied to this candidate at any point in the selection".
How it is recorded
The register has the two columns described in Part 6, and this is the case that separates them.
| Situation | Column: community | Column: filled as |
|---|---|---|
| SC candidate selected against an SC point with relaxed standards | SC | SC |
| SC candidate selected on the general standard, no relaxation | SC | UR |
| General candidate selected against an unreserved point | General | UR |
The middle row is the one that gets filled in wrongly. The candidate remains SC for every other purpose — the community column says so, and he retains his status for reservation in future promotions — but the post has been filled as unreserved and the SC points remain available.
What the error costs
Take a cadre of 100 direct-recruitment posts with 15 SC points. Twelve SC officers are in position, one of whom was appointed on his own merit against an unreserved point.
Recorded correctly, eleven of the fifteen SC points are filled and the shortfall is four. Recorded incorrectly — with the own-merit officer shown against the SC quota — the register shows twelve of fifteen filled and a shortfall of three.
The establishment then recruits three SC candidates instead of four. Repeat that across recruitment years and the cadre drifts steadily below its entitlement, with a register that looks correct on its face. This is precisely the drift the post-based roster was designed to prevent, reintroduced by a bookkeeping error.
The fifty per cent computation
The same rule affects the ceiling. Because own-merit appointees are excluded from the computation, a cadre can hold more than fifty per cent reserved-category persons without breaching the fifty per cent limit on reserved posts.
Those are different measurements and it is worth keeping them apart in a noting. The limit applies to posts filled by reservation. A reserved-category officer who was appointed on merit occupies an unreserved post and does not count towards it.
Own merit in promotion — a caution
The position in direct recruitment is settled. In promotion it is less so.
An Office Memorandum of 10 August 2010 dealing with own-merit promotion was recorded as sub judice in the DoPT compendium. Before recording an own-merit adjustment in a promotion roster, check the current status of that instruction rather than assuming the direct-recruitment rule applies unchanged. This is a genuine open point, not a drafting nicety.
The third exercise in the Reservation Roster Trainer includes this case, because in practice it is the one people get wrong most often.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1. An SC candidate scored above the general cut-off. Which quota is the appointment recorded against?
The unreserved quota — provided no relaxation of any kind was applied at any stage of the selection. The community column records SC; the filled-as column records UR. The SC roster points remain available.
Q2. Does an own-merit candidate lose SC, ST or OBC status?
No. The candidate retains the community status for all other purposes, including eligibility for reservation in future promotions. What changes is only the category against which this particular post has been recorded as filled.
Q3. Does a fee concession or age relaxation disqualify a candidate from own-merit treatment?
Yes. The instructions require selection on the same standard as applied to general candidates, and a relaxation of any kind — qualifying standard, age, fee or qualifications — takes the candidate outside own merit. Recent decisions have applied this across the whole selection process, not merely the final stage.
Q4. How does own merit affect the fifty per cent limit?
Own-merit appointees are excluded when the fifty per cent limit is computed. The limit applies to posts filled by reservation, so a reserved-category officer occupying an unreserved post on merit does not count towards it.
Related Reading
Next: shortfall, backlog and carry-forward, where the figures from this part are actually used.