Haryana government to file appeal in SC after HC invalidates additional assessment policy on socio-economic criteria

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government will file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Supreme Court quashing its policy of giving additional marks on socio-economic criteria to government job aspirants. The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday declared unconstitutional the socio-economic criteria laid down by the Haryana government for awarding additional marks to certain categories of candidates for state government posts.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state will appeal to the top court against the Supreme Court’s decision.

In a post in Hindi on X, Saini said, “The Haryana government has chalked out an ambitious plan to give five additional marks to candidates from the poor, weak and disadvantaged sections of the society to promote them. The Supreme Court issued a decision in this case…

He added that the state government will continue this fight in accordance with the law and constitution and will appeal to the top court.

“The socio-economic criteria were found to be unconstitutional and violating Art. 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution. This was announced in the court by a division bench,” Sarthak Gupta, lawyer of one of the petitioners, said on Friday.

The practice of awarding additional or bonus grades was found unconstitutional, he added.

The Supreme Court’s ruling followed a number of petitions questioning the socio-economic criteria.

After the Supreme Court verdict, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala slammed the BJP government in Haryana, saying it had “murdered the future of young people”.

With the policy of awarding additional marks in socio-economic criteria in ‘C’, ‘D’ and other professions being scrapped, the future of over 20 million youth of Haryana hangs in the balance, the Congress leader in X has announced.

The state government introduced socio-economic criteria a few years ago with a view to awarding additional marks to certain categories of candidates, including those who do not have a government employee in their family, are domiciled in the state and whose annual family income does not exceed Rs. 1.8 thousand