The Madhya Pradesh High Court (MPHC) in a landmark judgment on Saturday set aside the provision of reservations in promotion in the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Rules, 2002.
The court said all the promotions granted according to 2002 rules would
be invalid.
The ruling of the division bench of Chief Justice Ajay Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Yadav came while hearing the public interest litigations (PIl) filed by RB Rai, Santosh Kumar, SC Pandey and others.
The petitioners had challenged 2002 rules on the ground that they were not in conformity with the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the M Nagraj Vs Union of India (2006).
The court in its order said, “The existing provision relating to reservation, backlog vacancies, carry forward of backlog vacancies. contained in the Rules of 2002
runs contrary to the constitutional provisions contained in clause (4A) and (4B) of
Article 16 and Article 335 and law predicated in M Nagraj.”
The court further added in its order
that, “Consequently, various promotions of SCs (Scheduled Castes) and STs
(Scheduled Tribes) category made on the basis of these Rules of 2002 are held to be non-est in the eyes of law and the
persons be placed in the position as if the
said rules never existed and all actions taken in furtherance thereof must be
reverted to status quo ante (the situation existing earlier).”
Advocate Amol Shrivastava who
represented one of the petitioners while talking to the mediapersons later in the day
said, “The implication of this judgement will be that all the promotions made under the rules of 2002 are non est (invalid) in the
eyes of law and will be reverted and the gradation lists of various departments will have to be redrawn as prior to the enactment of rules of 2002.”