MP govt caught in bind over SC allowing reservation in promotions
BHOPAL: RESERVATION IN PROMOTIONS IS A POLITICALLY SENSITIVE ISSUE IN MADHYA PRADESH DIVIDING
THE EMPLOYEES AND STAFF IN TWO CAMPS
The Madhya Pradesh government has sought legal opinion on implementing a Supreme Court order allowing reservation in promotions because of the political implications for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the election year.
The state government’s order extending reservation in promotions was quashed by the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on a petition by employees organisation representing the general category and other backward classes (OBCs).
The state government has challenged the stay in the apex court following an agitation by unions representing reserved communities.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Centre to go ahead with reservation in promotion for employees belonging to SC and ST categories in “accordance with law”.
The Centre’s plea before the apex court was that the entire process of promotion had come to a standstill due to the court’s status quo order in 2015 and orders passed by various high courts.
Buoyed over the order, the union of reserved category employees, Anusuchit Jati Janjati Adhikari Karmchari Sangh (AJJAKS), moved for immediate implementation of the order in the state. The sangh has submitted a memorandum in this regard to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior officials, said SL Suryanvashi, general secretary, AJJAKS.
Suryavansi said after the Supreme Court order, there should be no hesitation on the government’s part in initiating the process for reservation in promotion. More so because thousands of employees and officers retired without promotion in the past two years.
However, Samanya Aur Pichhda Adhikari Karmchari Sangthan (SAPAKS) representing the general category and OBC officers and employees doesn’t agree with the view of SC/ST organisations.
Sangthan president Kedar Singh Tomar said the order by the SC was in context of the central government and does not apply to Madhya Pradesh or any other state automatically.
“The SC order talked of only promotion, not reservation in promotion. Also, since 2002 rules for reservation in promotion had been quashed by the high court Jabalpur bench and it was not in force now there was no room for reservation in promotion,” he said. Reservation in promotions is a politically sensitive issue in Madhya Pradesh dividing the employees and officials in two camps. Considering its political implications, the state government doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to go ahead with the implementation or even to move the apex court to seek a direction in the context of Madhya Pradesh.
Minister of state for general administration Lal Singh Arya said, “Anything can be said on this only after getting a copy of the order and getting it examined legally.” Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the past has assured employees that his government would address the issue of reservations in promotion saying it was “their right” leading to protest by general category staff.
Since April 2016, none of the state government employees and officials have been promoted while many retired without getting the benefit of promotion in the wake of high court judgment. The state government challenged the judgment in the Supreme Court. As the petition has been pending in the Supreme Court for the past two years, the CM had announced that the retirement age of the government employees and officers would go up from from 60 to 62 years in anticipation of the SC judgment in the case.