General Category Seat Is For All: SC

General Category Seat Is For All: SC 15 Feb 2009, 1610 hrs IST, PTI Text: NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has held that a person belonging to the SC, ST or Backward Class category can contest elections in posts reserved for the general category and there cannot be a restriction on their vying for the post. "The expression belonging to the general category wherever employed means the seats or offices earmarked for persons belonging to all categories irrespective of their caste, class or community or tribe." "The unreserved seats euphemistically described as general category seats are open seats available for all candidates who are otherwise qualified to contest to that office," a bench of Justices L S Panta and B Sudershan Reddy observed. The bench passed the observation while quashing a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement which had ruled that a person belonging to the SC, ST or Backward Class cannot contest for the post of the president of Hisar Municipal Council reserved for the general category post. In this case Bihari Lal Rada, a Backward Class candidate, was elected as president of the Municipal Council in the elections held in 2005 which was reserved for general category candidates. However, the election was set aside by the High Court on a petition by Anil Jain, a general category candidate who was defeated in the election.

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