NO CHANGE IN VERDICT ON SC/ST JOB PROMOTION

New Delhi, Sept. 26: The Supreme Court on Wednesday paved the way for grant of quota for promotions in the government jobs to SCs and STs, holding that the states were not required to “collect quantifiable data” reflecting the backwardness among these communities.

The verdict cleared a major hurdle that was cited by the Central government in granting reservation in promotion to its employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The matter had travelled to a fivejudge constitution bench, which declined the demand to refer it to a sevenjudge bench to reconsider its 2006 judgement that had put certain conditions for granting quota benefits in job promotions for SC/ST employees.

The apex court clarified that there was no need to revisit its 12-year-old verdict in the M. Nagaraj case.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Centre’s demand for revisiting the 2006 ruling on the ground that it has become impossible to implement the directions to provide quota for SC/STs only after identifying backwardness, collecting data on adequacy of representation and administrative efficiency.

A Constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Nariman, S.K. Kaul and Indu Malhotra, held that there was no need to revisit the verdict by a larger bench of seven judges. The bench, however, held that the concept of ‘creamy layer' would be applicable to SC/STs but their inclusion or exclusion has to be done by Parliament.

The bench made it clear that for providing quota in promotion to SC/STs, quantifiable data shall be collected by the state, on the parameters as stipulated in Nagaraj on the inadequacy of representation, which can be tested by the courts.

“We may further add that the data would be relatable to the concerned cadre.” it added. But it accepted the Centre’s contention that there was no need for fresh identification of backwardness of SC/ST employees as the determination of backwardness by the President at the time of inclusion of the community under the list of Scheduled Caste is sufficient.

In October 2006, a five judge Constitution bench in the case of Nagaraj vs Union of India has concluded the issue by holding that the State is not bound to make reservation for SC/ST in matter of promotions. However if they wish to exercise their discretion and make such provision, the State has to collect quantifiable data showing backwardness of the class and inadequacy of representation of that class in public employment.

There must be compelling reasons, namely, backwardness and inadequacy of representation, which enables the States to provide for reservation keeping in mind the overall efficiency of the State administration.

Writing the unanimous judgment Justice Nariman said judgment does not need to be referred to a seven-Judge bench.