Prayagraj, May 13 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition seeking reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the recruitment for 69,000 posts of assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh.

The appeal was filed against the judgment of a single bench of the court which held that the recruitment had commenced prior to the introduction of reservation in EWS category.

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Refusing to grant relief, a bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Praveen Kumar Giri observed that all of the appointments have already been made, and it will be impossible to implement the direction sought by the appellant at this stage.

"Admittedly, the process of recruitment not only commenced but already concluded. The Secretary of the Board has filed his personal affidavit clearly stating that all appointments are made on 69000 advertised vacancies of assistant teachers.

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"None of the selected candidates has been impleaded as a party respondent in the present bunch. None of the selections already made is under challenge either," the court said.

In the event 10 per cent EWS Reservation is required to be extended, a direction will have to be issued to draw a merit list for candidates belonging to the EWS category, the court said.

There is nothing on record to show that in the examination form, any of the candidates was required to furnish details of his/her EWS status. It would, therefore, be difficult to ascertain as to who the persons are who would actually be falling in the EWS category, the court added.

The court further observed, "In the absence of details in that regard, it would be further difficult to prepare any merit list of the candidate belonging to the EWS category."

Even if such details are made available, the implementation of such a reservation would require 10 per cent of candidates belonging to the unreserved category to be ousted so as to accommodate these persons, it said, noting that the selected persons are already working for the last several years and their appointment is not under challenge.

The court said, "In such circumstances, it would not be a prudent exercise of discretion for this court to issue any direction to extend 10% EWS reservation in the recruitment in question, at this stage, as implementation of such direction would be a mere impossibility."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)