Govt to decide on review plea after studying order on SC/ST promotions

The government has begun studying the consequences of the ruling of the Supreme Court, striking down the consequential seniority in promotions awarded to SC/ST employees.

“The order will have far-reaching consequences. There will be demotions of several employees who have been promoted as per the provisions of the Karnataka Determination of Seniority of the Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (To the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Act, 2002, as the entire legislation has been quashed by the court,” Law Minister T B Jayachandra told DH.

The minister said it is too early to get the exact number of demotions that will happen as the process of calculation will take time.

“I have held discussions with the advocate general and the law secretary and told them to study the order. They will recommend to the government whether it is a fit case to file a review,” Jayachandra said.

T K Anil Kumar, secretary to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, said a clear picture on the consequences of the order was yet to emerge.

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, had held that proportionate representation of posts for SC/STs was not sufficient reason to grant promotion. It had held that an exercise for determining ‘inadequacy of representation,’ ‘backwardness’ and ‘overall efficiency’ must be carried out before granting promotion to SC/ST employees.

Official sources said implementation of the order will result in demotions of employees across 39 departments. It will also result in promotion of employees from the general category who had been awaiting their turn for years, in spite of meeting eligibility criteria. The order does not affect those who have got promotions and retired.

CM’s reaction
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the government was likely to file a review petition against the Supreme Court order on promotions. He was answering a query from reporters in this connection.

Court relied on 2006 decision
The Supreme Court has relied upon the Constitution bench’s decision of 2006 in the ‘M Nagaraj and others’ case to declare as invalid a Karnataka law to the extent that it provided consequential seniority to state employees belonging to SC/STs. “We declare the provisions of the impugned Act to the extent of doing away with the ‘catch up’ rule and providing for consequential seniority to persons belonging to SCs and STs on promotion against roster points to be ultra vires Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution,” the court said, reports DHNS from New Delhi. The ‘catch up’ rule, as explained in the Nagaraj judgment, stated that if a senior general candidate was promoted after SC and ST candidates, he would regain his seniority on promotion in relation to the juniors who had been promoted against reserved vacancies.