Big decision on a reservation in promotion to SC-ST: Supreme Court refused to interfere in the parameters of reservation, said- let the state decide, but keep reviewing

The Supreme Court on Friday gave a big decision on a reservation in promotion to SC-ST. The Supreme Court has refused to interfere in setting its scale. The Supreme Court said that we cannot do this, the states should do it. The Supreme Court said that the state governments should collect their data before deciding the reservation. The court said that the governments should also review from time to time whether SC-STs have got proper representation in reservation in a promotion or not. A period should also be fixed for this review.

The court has also said that after the decision of the Constitution Bench in the 2006 Nagraj and 2018 Jarnail Singh cases, the Supreme Court cannot make any new parameters. The hearing on clarity in the matters of reservation related to the Center and the states will start from February 24.

What did the court say?

The matter was being heard by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Nageswara Rao. A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna, and B R Gavai observed that the concerned state government is bound to collect the data prescribed in the 2006 judgment of the Supreme Court in M ​​Nagaraj v Union of India.

The court said, "We cannot interfere with the provisions and scale of reservation laid down in the earlier decisions. The state is bound to collect quantitative data before giving reservations in the promotion to the employees of SC-ST tribes. SC-ST Whether the reservation in promotion has got proper representation or not. A period should also be fixed for this review. We have left it to the state to assess its criteria."

The court had reserved the decision on October 2021.

The Supreme Court had reserved the decision on 26 October 2021 in the matter of reservation in promotion. The counsel for the Central Government in the Supreme Court had argued, "It is also a fact that even after 75 years of independence, the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes have not been brought to the same level of merit as the forward castes."

The issue of reservation in promotion is stuck since 2017

The Central and State Governments had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing on the reservation matters in promotions. According to the petitioner, due to the pending case in the court, the appointments in lakhs of posts across the country have been stalled. On behalf of the states, it was argued in the court that there was a promotion for regular posts at the central government level, but since 2017 the process of promotion to reserved posts across the country has been stalled.

what is the whole matter?

This whole matter is related to the issue of reservation in promotion given in government jobs. The central and state governments have filed several petitions in the apex court in this matter. All these petitions are related to two decisions of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. On these decisions, the court had issued a guideline for both the central and state governments that what should be the scale of promotion in government jobs.

The governments of both states had to face a lot of challenges in fulfilling this guideline of the court. After which a petition was filed in the apex court on behalf of both governments. In which it has been said that there is still ambiguity in the matter of reservation in promotion, due to which all the appointments have been stopped.