Government pushes plan for SC/ST quota in promotions

The Nagaraj case judgement had said that Article 16(4A) of the fundemental rights enshrined in the constitution, was only an enabling one which gives freedom to the state to provide for reservation

The controversial issue of reservations could well be re-ignited following a report from a government department proposing to provide a fixed quota in promotions for reserved category employees.

India has witnessed large number of protests on the issue of reservation policy in jobs, both for and against it. Things had come to a head in 1990, when the recommendations of the Mandal Commission were accepted by the central government, which raised the fixed quota in government jobs to nearly half of the total seats.

Now, a report has been presented by the department of personal and training (DoPT) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which supports a quota in promotions for SC and ST category employess. It reportedly states, "For equal opportunity and inclusive growth, there is need for reservation in promotion to continue in favour of SCs and STs," it said.

Following several judicial orders against reservation in promotions on the basis of a constitution bench verdict in M Nagraj case in 2006, a meeting chaired by the prime minister was held, which asked the department to prepare a report on the issue.

The Nagaraj case judgement had said that Article 16(4A) of the fundemental rights enshrined in the constitution, was only an enabling one which gives freedom to the state to provide for reservation in matters of promotion.

The order had further stated that the provisions could only be enforced after conditions such as backwardness, inadequacy of representation and administrative efficiency, were met for the intended beneficiaries.

The DoPT report has noted that in several government departments ,the representation of SCs and STs has not reached the 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent levels respectively.

DoPT has prepared the report in consultation with the attorney general and states that both the groups are economically, socially and educationally far behind other social groups in important parameters of development to justify affirmative action

OneIndia News