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The Supreme Court has turned down the Union government’s plea to do away with the requirement of collecting quantifiable data by the Centre and states to determine the representation of people belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) while implementing reservation in promotion.
What’s the case?
The court was hearing a batch of petitions arising out of judgments from 11 high courts, which delivered rulings on various pertinent reservation policies in the last 10 years.
Observations made by the supreme court:
Pavitra case:
With the recognition of ‘cadre’ as the unit for collection of quantifiable data, the court has also set aside its earlier judgment in the B.K. Pavithra case.
What constitutes a cadre?
Explaining why ‘cadre’ should be the unit for the purpose of collection of quantifiable data in relation to promotional posts, the court said otherwise the entire exercise of reservation in promotions would be rendered meaningless if data pertaining to the representation of SCs and STs is done with reference to the entire service.
M Nagaraj case:
In 2006, a Constitution bench’s ruling in the M Nagaraj case made it incumbent upon the state to collect quantifiable data showing inadequacy of representation of a section of people in public employment in addition to maintaining overall administrative efficiency.
What are the arguments by the union Government?
The Union government pressed for reservation in promotion proportionate to the population of SCs and STs as per a 1995 judgment by the top court in the RK Sabharwal case. It should be left to the Centre and states to decide on promotional avenues for SCs and STs.
Present scenario:
At present, there is a roster system in place in every cadre of the government departments to ascertain the posts required to be filled up by SCs/STs.
Constitutional basis for reservation- Article 335:
Article 335 recognises that special measures need to be adopted for considering the claims of SCs and STs in order to bring them to a level-playing field.