BREAKING: The Supreme Court Refuses to Relax Reservations in Promotion for SC/STs- Find Out More

The Supreme Court held on Friday that, in addition to assessing inadequacy of representation after a periodic review for provision of reservation in promotion to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, the collecting of quantitative data is required.

After the Constitution bench decisions in Nagaraj (2006) and Jarnail Singh (2007), the Court declared that it could not set a new standard (2018).

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a decision on the issue of reservation in government promotions for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

Attorney General K K Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Balbir Singh, and other eminent lawyers represented many states before a three-judge bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna, and B.R. Gavai.

To summarize, the bench ruled today:

1. The Court cannot establish any yardstick for determining inadequacy of representation.

2. The state is required to collect quantifiable data on the adequacy of representation.

3. Cadre should be the unit in charge of gathering quantifiable data for reservation. The collection cannot be for the entire class/class/group, but it must be relevant to the Grade/Category of post for which promotion is sought. Cadre should be the unit in charge of gathering quantifiable data. It would be less meaningful if data collection was done in relation to the entire service.

4. The Nagaraj decision from 2006 would have a long-term impact.

5. The conclusion in BK Pavitra (II) approving data collection based on groups rather than cadres contradicts the dictum in Jarnail Singh.

The Centre had previously told the bench that it is a fact of life that those from the SCs and STs have not been promoted to the same level of merit as those from the advanced classes, despite the fact that it has been nearly 75 years.

 

The time has come for the Supreme Court to offer some solid foundation for SCs, STs, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to fill vacancies, according to AG Venugopal.

 

The Supreme Court had previously declared that it would not reconsider its decision on awarding reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), and that it was up to the states to decide how to implement it.

 

On October 26, 2021, the Supreme Court had reserved its decision.

Case Details:

Title: JARNAIL SINGH AND ORS. vs LACHHMI NARAIN GUPTA AND ORS.

Case No: SLP(C) No. 30621/2011