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Poonam Dwivedi v. State of U.P.  2026 INSC 351 - UPSSSC - EWS Reservation

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UPSSSC - EWS Reservation - The Supreme Court held that to claim reservation under the EWS category for the UPSSSC 2021 recruitment of Female Health Workers, candidates were required to possess an Income and Asset Certificate in the prescribed Form‑I, relating to the financial year immediately preceding the year of application (i.e., FY 2020–2021) and issued on or before the cut‑off date. The appellants’ certificates either related to the wrong financial year, were issued before the relevant financial year had closed, or otherwise did not conform to the advertisement and statutory scheme, rendering them invalid for EWS reservation. Relying on Divya v. Union of India and UPSC v. Gaurav Singh, the Court upheld the rejection of the appellants’ EWS claims and dismissed the appeals, emphasizing that, in large public recruitments processed through software, such documentary defects cannot ordinarily be condoned.

Case Info

Basic Case Information


Case name: Poonam Dwivedi & Ors. v. State of U.P. & Ors.

Neutral citation: 2026 INSC 351

Court: Supreme Court of India, Civil Appellate Jurisdiction

Coram: Justice Manoj Misra, Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Judgment date: 10 April 2026 (New Delhi)


Case Laws and Citations Referred

  1. UPSC v. Gaurav Singh & Ors., (2024) 2 SCC 605Cited for the principle that when a certificate is required for a particular financial year, production of a certificate relating to a different financial year goes to the root of a candidate’s eligibility and is not acceptable.
  2. Divya v. Union of India & Ors., (2024) 1 SCC 448Cited for holding that, for claiming reservation under the EWS category, the Income and Asset Certificate of the specified financial year in the prescribed form must be in the candidate’s possession on or before the cut‑off date.

Statutes / Laws and Government Instruments Referred

  1. Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Economically Weaker Sections) Act, 2020
    • Section 7: Provides for issuance of income and assets certificate by an authority not below the rank of Tehsildar, in the manner and form prescribed by the State Government; deems the Office Memorandum dated 18.02.2019 to have been issued under this section.
  3. Office Memorandum No. 1/2019/4/1/2002/ka-2/19 T.C. II dated 18 February 2019 (State of U.P.)
    • Defines EWS criteria, including income ceiling of Rs. 8 lakh and exclusion based on specified assets.
    • Specifies that income is to be taken for the “financial year prior to the year of application”.
  5. Central Government O.M. dated 17 January 2019
    • Referred to by parties to show that it uses the expression “financial year prior to the year of application” for determining income for EWS.
  7. UPSSSC Advertisement dated 15 December 2021 for 9212 posts of Health Worker (Female)
    • Clause 8 and particularly Clause 8.3: Requires candidates seeking reservation to submit a caste/reservation certificate issued up to the last date of application/adver­tisement in the prescribed proforma (Form‑I).
    • Appendix Form‑I (Government of Uttar Pradesh – “Certificate with regard to income and assets to be submitted by the member of the Economically Weaker Section”) requires the certificate to specify the financial year for which it is valid and that family income is below Rs. 8,00,000 in that financial year and that specified assets are not owned.