Government Plans To Push Ahead With SC/ST Quota In Promotions

The centre is planning to push ahead with its plan to provide reservation in promotions to government employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This comes after a report prepared by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) claimed that reservation in promotions is necessary “for equal opportunity and inclusive growth”.

The recommendations were made by the DoPT following a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2016 to deal with several judicial orders against reservation in promotions based on a Constitution bench verdict in the 2006 M Nagraj case.

Delivering its verdict in the case in 2006, the Constitution bench had said, ''The Article 16(4A) was only an enabling provision, and not mandatory, which gave freedom to the state to provide for reservation in matters of promotion to SC and ST employees.''

The 2006 order stated that reservation in promotions could only be offered if the beneficiary fulfills the conditions of ‘backwardness’, belongs to a community that has ‘inadequate representation’ and displays ‘administrative efficiency’.