No fundamental right to claim reservation, State not bound to provide reservation in promotion: SC

In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court on Friday said an individual cannot claim reservation as a fundamental right and the government is not bound to provide quota in promotion for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees in public jobs.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta said Articles 16 (4) and 16 (4-A) of the Constitution empowered the State to make reservation in matters of appointment and promotion in favour of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes “if in its opinion, they are not adequately represented in the services”.

The top court said it was for the state government to decide whether reservations were required in the matter of appointment and promotions to public posts.

“In view of the law laid down by this court, there is no doubt that the state government is not bound to make reservations. There is no fundamental right which inheres in an individual to claim reservation in promotions. No mandamus can be issued by the court directing the state government to provide reservations,” the bench held.

The top court relied upon the Constitution bench judgements in Indra Sawhney (1992), M Nagaraj (2006) and Jarnail Singh (2018) and Suresh Chand Gautam (2016) cases, among others, to set aside the Uttarakhand HC's directions issued on July 15, 2019 to the state government to implement reservations in promotion.

The HC's direction for filling up all future vacancies in post of Assistant Engineers in PWD from the members of SC/STs was “wholly unjustifiable”, it said.

The bench found the HC's direction to collect quantifiable data was “wholly unnecessary”, since the state government took a conscious decision not to provide reservation in promotions.

The court said since the State was not bound to provide reservations in promotions, it was not required to justify its decision on the basis of quantifiable data, showing adequate representation of members of the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes in its services.

“Even if the under-representation of Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes in public services is brought to the notice of this court, no mandamus can be issued to the state government to provide reservation,” it said.