SC NOD TO SC/ST PROMOTION QUOTA
Supreme Court allows Centre to go ahead with the process that was at a standstill
NEW DELHI: In a relief to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the government could go ahead with reservation in promotion for employees of the SC and ST category “in accordance with law”.
The SC took into account the Centre’s submissions that entire promotion process has come to a “standstill” due to orders passed by various high courts; the apex court had also ordered “status quo” in a similar matter in 2015.
A vacation bench of justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan said the Centre was not “debarred” from making promotions in accordance with law in the matter.
“It is made clear that the Union of India is not debarred from making promotions in accordance with law, subject to further orders, pending further consideration of the matter,” the bench said.
The government said there were separate verdicts by the high courts of Delhi, Bombay and Punjab and Haryana on the issue, and that the SC had also passed different orders on pleas filed against those judgment.
“We will say you (Centre) can go ahead with promotion in accordance with law,” the bench told additional solicitor general (ASG) Maninder Singh, who was representing the Centre.
During the hearing, the ASG cited the case laws on the issue of quota in promotion in government jobs and stated that the apex court’s 2006 judgement in M Nagaraj case would be applicable.
The M Nagaraj verdict had said that the creamy layer concept cannot be applied to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for promotions in government jobs like two ear-
THE GOVERNMENT SAID THERE WERE SEPARATE VERDICTS BY THE HIGH COURTS OF DELHI, BOMBAY AND PUNJAB AND HARYANA ON THE ISSUE
lier verdicts of 1992 Indra Sawhney and others versus Union of India (popularly called Mandal Commission verdict) and 2005 EV Chinnaiah versus State of Andhra Pradesh, which dealt with creamy layer in Other Backward Classes category.
At the outset, the ASG referred to orders passed by the apex court earlier, including a reference made to a five-judge constitution bench, and contended that one of the orders says there would be “status quo” as far as reservation in promotion to SC/SC employees was concerned.
He referred to a May 17 order passed by a bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph in a similar matter in which it was said that pendency of petition before it shall not stand in the way of the Centre taking steps for the purpose of promotion. “How the promotion is taking place as of now,” the bench asked.
The ASG responded, “They are not. It is all (at) standstill. This is the problem.”
He said that another bench of the apex court had earlier said that a five-judge constitution bench would examine the issue as to whether the M Nagaraj judgement, which dealt with the issue of application of the ‘creamy layer’ for reservation to SC and ST categories in promotion in government jobs, was required to be re-looked at or not.
He also referred to Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution, which enables state to provide for reservation in matters of promotion to SC/ST which in its opinion were not adequately represented in the services. “That is the enabling provision,” the bench observed.
It said that according to Article 16 (4A), state would have tomake out a case for providing reservation in promotion to SC/ST based on quantifiable data. The bench has tagged the entre’s appeal with pending matters.