RESERVATION / THE HIDDEN RULE
The reservation rule nobody told you about
Same merit list. Same quotas. A different counting rule can produce a very different result.
REVISED NEET-PG 2025 CUT-OFF
You must have seen screenshots like this going viral.
But do you know the mathematical impossibility hiding behind the cutoff debate?
Under the current rule, a reserved cutoff can never be higher than the Open cutoff.
You are going to learn something new today. Swipe left. →
01 / QUICK QUESTION
How many reserved seats are left?
An exam has 100 vacancies, of which 50 are reserved for specified categories. The first 50 candidates selected purely on merit rank list include 30 general-category candidates and 20 reserved-category candidates. How many of the 50 reserved vacancies remain?
02 / THE REVEAL
All 50 are still left
Under the current rule, the 50 Open seats are filled first.
So the first 50 candidates in the rank list fill those Open seats. This includes 20 reserved-category candidates.
Those 20 candidates do not use any reserved seats. The 50 reserved seats are then filled by another 50 reserved-category candidates.
Final list: 30 General candidates and 70 reserved-category candidates.
The reservation percentage was 50%. The final representation became 70%.
Not a software error. This is the rule.
03 / WATCH IT
Open fills first
This is called over and above. Winning an Open seat does not use up a reserved seat.
Candidate colour shows identity. Bars show vacancy pools.
04 / THE MISSED DETAIL
The detail both camps miss
We argue about reservation every day.
Almost always as “for” or “against”.
Almost never about how seats are counted.
Most elected representatives, loud public voices and judges do not know this counting rule or its extreme consequences.
Yet this small rule decides real outcomes.
We rarely test the extreme result before accepting the rule.
05 / CONSEQUENCE
Why the cutoffs cannot cross
Allocation ready.
Open takes the highest scores first. After it is full, General candidates are skipped while reserved seats fill from lower ranks.
If you were as naive as me, you may have thought the cutoffs would move closer once every community was adequately represented.
Stop waiting. The current rule makes crossing impossible.
06 / CONSEQUENCE
What happens over time?
Take 10 seats. Five are Open and five are reserved.
Earlier, only one candidate from the community reached the top five. After years of reservation, let's say three candidates do now.
The community now gets three Open seats and the same five reserved seats. Total: eight out of ten.
The two extra achievements are added on top of the quota, not counted inside it.
07 / MY PROPOSAL
Horizontal allocation
Here is my proposal. Some call this counting rule a minimum guarantee.
Fill each community's reserved vacancies first. General candidates use Open only. Once a minimum is full, later candidates from that community can still win Open.
08 / THE OBVIOUS QUESTION
“But Open is for everyone!”
Correct.
And it stays that way.
Horizontal allocation does not turn Open into General.
Meeting the minimum does not block anyone. It guarantees a minimum. It does not set a maximum.
09 / THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Try the ideal-world test
Imagine the merit list already matches the population.
Over and above: The first 50 are selected in Open. Then 27 OBC seats and 23 SC/ST seats are filled separately. Final: 14 General, 51 OBC and 35 SC/ST.
Horizontal allocation: OBC and SC/ST achievements count towards their minimums. The top 100 already cross both minimums. Final: 28 General, 47 OBC and 25 SC/ST.
Same merit list. Very different result.
Simplified illustration: 50.5% Open, 27% OBC, and 22.5% combined SC/ST. The population mix is only for this example. It is not from a current caste census.
10 / CORNER CASE
Take it to the extreme
This is a mental exercise, not a forecast.
Suppose reserved-community candidates win every Open seat.
Every selected person can now belong to a reserved community.
At this extreme, the basic representation and participation argument for reservation crumbles. A rule meant to prevent exclusion can produce a list that excludes every General candidate.
11 / POPULAR REFORMS
Creamy layer does not change this arithmetic
Creamy layer, family limits and voluntary surrender can change who receives a reserved seat.
They may help the benefit reach a poorer family or someone lower in the category list. But Open is still filled first.
This changes who gets the reserved seat. It does not create another Open seat for a General candidate.
12 / THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Publish numbers people can understand
A reserved cutoff hides the category’s best performers because they were already counted under Open.
Want to know whether performance is improving? Publish these four numbers after every exam:
Numbers from this illustration. They are not results from a real exam.
Cutoffs alone cannot show whether the policy is working.
13 / HOW IT STARTED
This was a legal choice
The Constitution allows reservation. It does not print this step-by-step allocation method.
- The Union says reserved-category candidates selected on merit will not be counted against reserved seats.
- Nine judges uphold this rule in Indra Sawhney.
- R. K. Sabharwal confirms the rule for government jobs.
- Ritesh Sah applies the same rule to medical admissions.
- Saurav Yadav: Open belongs to everyone.
This is not a portal bug. It is a deliberate legal rule. Its extreme result is rarely discussed in public.
14 / PROCESS IS NOT POLICY
The candidate does not choose
A common misconception is that candidates choose after the exam whether to use Open or reservation.
That is not how it works.
- 1Open fills first by rank
- 2High-ranked reserved candidate goes into Open
- 3The community quota remains untouched
The candidate does not choose to save the quota. The rule does it automatically.
Checking certificates earlier will not change this. Only changing the counting rule will.
15 / THE LEGAL ROUTE
Changing it will not be easy
Indra Sawhney had nine judges. To reverse it through the courts, a larger bench would be needed, most likely eleven judges.
Parliament would need to amend the Constitution. Governments would then need to rewrite admission and recruitment rules.
An amendment must pass each House with a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of members present and voting. It can still face basic-structure review.
A portal update cannot override this doctrine.
16 / THE QUESTION WE MISSED
Now ask the right question
“Do we need reservation?” may not be the right question. Start with the rule.
When27seats are reserved for a community, should itsOpenwinners count inside those 27? Or should they be added on top?
Same ranks. Different rule. Different final list.
Sources and important limits
Two cutoffs: the NEET-PG image is a counselling-eligibility cutoff. The maths here is about the last score used to fill a vacancy pool from one common merit list.
Open is not General: General describes a candidate. Open describes a seat that any eligible candidate can win.
Naming: horizontal reservations usually cover cross-cutting groups such as women or persons with disabilities. This proposal borrows their minimum-counting method for vertical caste categories.
Simplified animation: SC and ST are combined; EWS, preferences, rounds, relaxations and state rules are omitted.