*Service Law* - "While a higher educational qualification may confer an additional advantage of preference in the matter of selection, it does not supplant or override the primary requirement of essential eligibility. To hold otherwise would amount to rewriting the terms of the selection and altering the criteria after the process had commenced. A preference operates only within the zone of eligible and merit candidates; it does not enlarge or modify the field of eligibility itself. In other words, the stage of applying preference arises only after a candidate is found to fulfil the essential qualifications prescribed for the post. Where a candidate does not meet the threshold requirement of eligibility, the question of extending preference, being in merit, on account of higher qualification does not arise." - *Himakshi v. Rahul Verma [2026] GCtR 335 (SC)*