Bar on migration to unreserved vacancies after availing stage-wise relaxation

When a candidate belonging to a reserved category avails concessions or relaxed evaluation standards at any stage of a multi-tier competitive examination, such candidate becomes legally ineligible for consideration against unreserved or general category vacancies. The statutory framework explicitly debars reserved candidates who rely on relaxed qualifying thresholds from migrating to open merit quotas. This restriction applies irrespective of whether the relaxation was utilized for initial eligibility, screening criteria, or final selection marks. The statutory embargo ensures that open competition posts remain restricted to candidates who meet unreserved performance benchmarks at every stage. A candidate benefiting from relaxed benchmarks cannot subsequently claim unreserved status. (Union of India v. G. Kiran & Ors. | 2026 INSC 15)