Supreme Court judgement on reservation in Promotion

Tags: National News

The Supreme Court on 28 January 2022 delivered its judgement on the issue relating to the reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

A three judge bench of Justice  L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai gave its judgement on a petition by the Central and State government  to settle the confusion regarding the norms for reservation in promotion for Scheduled Caste(SC) and Scheduled Tribes(ST) .

The main points of the judgement are as follows:

1. The court cannot lay any yardstick to determine the inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in the services of the states.
2. It is the duty of the State to collect the quantifiable data before providing for reservation in promotion for SC/ST employees.
3. Cadre should be the unit for the collection of quantifiable data for reservation. The collection cannot be with respect to the entire class/group, but it should be relatable to the Grade/Category of post to which promotion is sought. 
4.  It also held that collection of information regarding inadequacy of representation of SCs and STs cannot be with reference to the entire service or ‘class’/‘group’ but it should be relatable to the grade/category of posts.
5. It also declared that the Supreme Court judgement in the  M Nagaraj case 2006 , which had laid down conditions like collections of quantifiable data, adequacy of representation and overall impact on efficiency of administration, for granting reservations in promotion in government would be applied prospectively.
6. The court also declared the judgement of the Supreme Court in the B K  Pavitra II 2019 case, which had allowed the collection of data on the basis of groups not cadres, as null and void.