Officials belonging to the SC and ST category and in the top of the seniority list cannot be promoted in the unreserved list if they had availed reservation during appointment, SC and ST Welfare Minister lal Bihari Himirika has stated in the State Assembly.
Himirika said this in a reply to BJP MlA Dilip Ray’s question. When asked on which grounds senior SC and ST officials would be deprived of getting promotion, the Minister did not reply in clear terms.
However, he stated that following the Supreme Court’s directive, promotion would be given to the officials as per post-based promotion norms.
“If an official under reserved category had been selected for the job by competing with unreserved candidates in the competitive examination securing high marks without taking advantage of the reservation facility then he can be promoted in unreserved list,” the Minister said.
“As per the apex court’s directive, reserved category ASOs are getting promoted as SOs in reserved list,” he added.
Notably, the Supreme Court in the RK Sabharwal case had directed to implement the ‘post-based roster’ instead of ‘vacancy-based roster’ in the promotional process.
Since many reserved candidates were getting advantage of the reservation law and have already received promotion in the reserved positions, the Supreme Court’s directive restricted promotion for SC and ST employees in unreserved posts.
The court also made it clear that the unreserved posts are not reserved for any particular group.