Should be some justifications to continue quota in promotion-SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government why it did not discontinue reservation in promotion for people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) even after their numbers exceeded the upper ceiling of 15% and 7.5% respectively, of positions in some classes of central government jobs.  a bench headed by justice L Nageswara Rao said there should be some justifications to continue with reservation in promotion. He also put the Union government in the dock over lack of data on how it determined inadequacy of representation of SCs and STs, as laid down in two previous judgments by a Constitution bench of the top court, even as it kept promoting them on the basis of a 1997 memorandum.

Attorney general KK Venugopal, appearing for the Union government, sought to explain it away by claiming that over-representation of SCs and STs in Group C and D posts should not worry the top court since there are “no takers” for these and that “general category candidates do not want these jobs”. But the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai, was having none of this. “The data given by the attorney general is disturbing. The moment you (government) saw that representation of SCs and STs was beyond 15% and 7.5% respectively, a decision had to be taken that we won’t continue with the promotion. But the government did not do anything of that sort. The office memorandum of 1997 continued in a blanket manner,” it said. The court, however, asked the A-G to place the data before it on Wednesday to justify its decision to continue with reservation in promotion in all identified posts.