The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday held as unconstitutional the socioeconomic criteria prescribed by the Haryana government to grant additional marks to certain classes of candidates in state government jobs.
Allowing a bunch of petitions filed by Aprit Gahlawat and others, the division bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Sudeepti Sharma quashed the socioeconomic criteria and termed it as unconstitutional and in violative of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India.
“The socioeconomic criteria has been held as unconstitutional and violative of Article 14, 15, 16. This was pronounced in the court Friday by a division bench,” said Sarthak Gupta, the counsel for one of the petitioners. The practice of giving extra marks or bonus marks has been declared as unconstitutional, he added.
The Haryana government had introduced the socioeconomic criteria a few years ago, aiming to provide additional marks to certain classes of candidates, including those who don’t have any family member in government job, are state-domiciled and their family income does not exceed Rs 1.80 lakh per annum.
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First uploaded on: 01-06-2024 at 03:41 IST