Apex court lifts curbs on quota in promotions

◗ The SC decision means that the creamy layer concept cannot be applied to SC/ STs for promotions in government jobs. It also upholds the Centre’s order extending reservation in promotion beyond the court- ordered deadline of Nov. 16, 1997.

New Delhi, June 5: In a major relief to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed it to go ahead with reservation in promotion for employees belonging to the SC and ST category in “accordance with law”.

The top court took into account the Centre’s submissions that the entire process of promotion has come to a “standstill” due to conflicting orders passed by various high courts and that the apex court had also ordered for “status quo” in a similar matter in 2015.

A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan said, “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 government said that there were several verdicts by the high courts of Delhi, Bombay and Punjab and Haryana on the issue of reservation in promotion to SC/ ST employees and the apex court had also passed different orders on appeals 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, representing the Centre.

During the hearing, the ASG cited case laws on the issue of quota in promotion in government jobs and stated that the apex court’s 2006 judgment in M. Nagaraj case would be applicable.

The M. Nagaraj verdict had said that creamy layer concept cannot be applied to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled

Tribes for promotions in government jobs. The M Nagaraj verdict was almost opposite of two earlier verdicts — Indra Sawhney and others versus Union of India ( popularly called Mandal Commission verdict) of 1992 and E. V. Chinnaiah versus Andhra Pradesh of 2005, which dealt with creamy layer in other backward classes ( OBC) category.

During the hearing, the bench asked the ASG, “How is promotion taking place as of now?” The ASG said, “They are not. It is all standstill. This is the problem.”

“I am the government and I want to give promotion as per constitutional mandate,” he told the bench.

Mr Singh said the petition before the bench is the Centre’s challenge to the Delhi high court’s August 23, 2017, verdict quashing the government’s order extending reservation in promotion to employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes beyond five years from November 16, 1992.

A nine- judge bench of Supreme Court, in the Indira Sawhney case in 1992, had earlier permitted reservation for the SCs and STs in promotion to continue for a period of five years from November 16, 1992.