Indian Tribal News Service
New Delhi
The Supreme Court has reiterated that Centre and states cannot escape from providing quantifiable data to justify reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Government jobs.
This data, according to the Court, has to show inadequate representation of SC/STs in public employment taking each cadre as a unit that should not be for all times but be open for review after a reasonable period.
After the judgment, two major issues confront the government – what yardstick to adopt for determining inadequate representation in promotional posts. Should it be based on population of SC/ST in the country vis-à-vis the entire population of the country or some other yardstick has to be adopted. This question has been left open for determination by the Centre.
And the other question confronting the government is – the criteria for measuring adequacy of representation of SC/ST should be reviewed after how many years. All that the Court has said is that this review is mandatory and should be done within a reasonable period. What constitutes “reasonable period” has not been defined.
Incidentally, the Centre came to Court asking these questions and seeking a judicial determination of the same. The Court has always sidestepped this issue in its past decisions on promotional reservation by saying these are issues that fall within the executive’s policy making domain.
So going ahead, the Centre will have to seek expert opinion by forming a Committee that could examine these aspects. This means, the last word on this issue is yet to be out. Any decision to be taken by the Government will also be subject to review by the Court.
The judgment can be explained in six questions and the answers to it:
1. How to gather quantifiable data on inadequate representation of SCs and STs in public employment?
No yardstick can be laid down by Court for determining the adequacy of SC/ST representation
2. What is the unit to measure this data?
Cadre should be the unit for collection of quantifiable data and not the entire service as a unit.
3. What is the test to determine that SC/ST are unrepresented in promotional posts?
State should take into account relevant factors to assess inadequacy of representation of SC/ST.
4. Should there be a time period to review inadequacy of representation?
Data collected to determine inadequacy needs to be reviewed periodically within reasonable period.
5. Whether judgment in M. Nagaraj (2006) should apply to appointments made prior to this date?
M. Nagaraj decision will be prospective
6. Was decision in B.K. Pavitra v. Union of India (2019) decided wrongly?
B.K. Pavitra was decided wrongly as it approved collection of data on basis of ‘groups’ and not cadre.
