In a crucial hearing affecting prospects of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe reservation in promotions in public services, the Supreme Court will on Tuesday determine the fate of a Government notification extending SC/ST reservation in promotions beyond five years.
Till 1997, reservation in promotion was fixed for a period up to five years as per the mandate of a 1992 Supreme Court judgment in the landmark Indra Sawhney case. But on August 13, 1997, the Centre issued a fresh notification allowing reservation in promotion to continue in perpetuity. This decision was challenged by an NGO All India Equality Forum and other individuals which led the HC to quash the August 1997 notification by its judgment dated August 23, 2017.
The appeal by the Centre was mentioned on Monday before a Vacation Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Ashok Bhushan. lawyers appearing in the case drew the attention of the Bench to an order passed in November 2017, by the apex court referring the issue of SC/ST promotion to a five-judge Constitution Bench. The issue under consideration was whether the test of backwardness should be criteria for reservation in promotions to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
This virtually amounted to reconsideration of a 2006 decision by a Constitution Bench in M Nagaraj case where the SC held that before making provisions for accelerated promotion to SC/ST in Government services, the State must show the existence of compelling reasons by way of their backwardness, inadequacy of representation in services, and the overall administrative efficiency.
It will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court will deal with the Centre’s appeal for continuing reservation in promotions beyond five years at a time when a related issue on SC/ST promotion is pending before a Constitution Bench.
The State can provide reservation to SC/STs in employment under Article 16(4A) and 16(4B) of the Constitution. In 2006, the SC imposed stiff conditions on States while exercising power under this provision. The idea behind reservation in promotion was to ensure that socially deprived communities do not lag behind and using the crutches of reservation can reach higher posts in Government service by way of an accelerated promotion up the ranks in order to bring them at par with general category posts.
To achieve this, the SC in 2006 directed that in future, States have to present quantifiable data showing the extent of backwardness and inadequate representation in public employment of the caste/tribe sought to be benefitted.