Usually, when we see the official notifications, Vertical and Horizontal reservations are mentioned. Let’s see the understand these reservations.
Reservation for backward classes of citizens (SCs, STs and OBCs) is called vertical reservation and the reservation for categories such as persons with disabilities and ex-servicemen is called horizontal reservation.
Horizontal reservation cuts across vertical reservation (in what is called inter-locking reservation) and persons selected against the quota for persons with disabilities have to be placed in the appropriate category viz. SC/ST/OBC/General candidates depending upon the category to which they belong in the roster meant for reservation of SCs/STs/OBCs.
To illustrate, if in a given year there are two vacancies reserved for persons with disabilities and out of two persons with disabilities appointed, one belongs to a Scheduled Caste and the other to a general category then the disabled SC candidate shall be adjusted against the SC point in the reservation roster and the general candidate against unreserved point in the relevant reservation roster. In case none of the vacancies falls on point reserved for the SCs, the disabled candidate belonging to SC shall be adjusted in the future against the next available vacancy reserved for SCs.
Since the persons with disabilities have to be placed in the appropriate category viz. SC/ST/OBC/ General in the roster meant for reservation of SCs/ST/OBCs, the application form for the post should require the candidates applying under the quota reserved for persons with disabilities to indicate whether they belong to SC/ST/OBC or General category.
