Reservation in Promotion Supreme Court Judgement 26.9.2018

Reservation in Promotion Supreme Court Judgement 26.9.2018

An Important Judgement Pronounced by Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of Reservation in Promotion on 26-9-2018. After this Judgement, Regional News Channels Flashed a news that ‘No Reservation in Promotion’ and some said, ‘States are not bound to give reservation in Promotion’.

But national Media claimed that ‘Hon’ble Supreme Court Judgement has paved the way for Reservation in Promotion ‘and some news report said “SC/ST will get Reservation in Promotions”

Today News channels reported that Hon’ble Supreme Court Decision to extend Creamy layer principle to SC/ST is over shadowed the quota system in Promotion in Government Jobs.

Which news headline is correct…?

If you go through the Judgement, you will be hesitating to say which news headlines are not correct?

All observations seem to be correct. Because there are three important decisions are made by the Five Judge Bench in the matter of reservation in Promotion . The following is the key parts of this Judgement

1. State is not bound to make reservation for SC/STs in matter of Promotion.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court held that the Judgement in Nagraj Case does not need to be referred to a seven Judge Bench. This Indicates that State is not bound to make reservation for SC/STs in matter of Promotion.

2. States need not collect quantifiable data on the backwardness of SCs and STs for giving quota in promotions

The Judgement in Nagraj Case stated that If the State wish to exercise their discretion to make reservation for SC/STs in Promotion, the state has to collect quantifiable data showing backwardness of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Now Hon’ble Supreme court held that this condition is contrary to the nine-Judge Bench in Indra Sawhney (1) (supra) is held to be invalid to this extent”

3. The Creamy Layer Principle to be extended to SC/ST also

In the matter of Applying Creamy Layer Principle in reservation, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has made the following observation.

“Constitutional Courts, when applying the principle of reservation, will be well within their jurisdiction to exclude the creamy layer from such groups or sub-groups when applying the principles of equality under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India”

“The whole object of reservation is to see that backward classes of citizens move forward so that they may march hand in hand with other citizens of India on an equal basis. This will not be possible if only the creamy layer within that class bag all the coveted jobs in the public sector and perpetuate themselves, leaving the rest of the class as backward as they always were. This being the case, it is clear that when a Court applies the creamy layer principle to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it does not in any manner tinker with the Presidential List under Articles 341 or 342 of the Constitution of India.”

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