RESERVATION IN PROMOTION IN GOVERNMENT JOBS
RESERVATION IN PROMOTION IN GOVERNMENT JOBS
History of reservation:
India has its own interesting history related to the concept of reservation in
promotion. Reservation system has been prevalent in India for quite some time
now. It has displayed its reach to areas such as education, jobs, etc. and
boasts of itself being a support system which extends help and fair relaxations
to the people of the country belonging to the previously and currently
oppressed members of the society. The main beneficiaries of the implications of
this reservation system are the people belonging to the scheduled caste,
scheduled tribe and OBC categories of the society. The reservation system in
India is not derived y any act passed by the parliament or the state
legislature in the country. The concept of reservation system in the society is
basically a set of rules, practices or a set of laws which has been passed by
the constitution and has been termed as statutory. However, this topic of
reservation has proved to be a very controversial one among the Indian citizen
with some people favoring for the system and some people completely against the
system.
Reservation in Promotion
As a very
important aspect of the reservation system, the reservation in promotion has
seen a fair amount of amendments and changes since its inception and
implementation. Since the year 1955, India has been providing reservations to
scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people of the society, which came under the
Article 16 (4). When the “Indra Sawhney Vs Union of India” case came up in the
court, it was determined that the case was a part of reservation in promotion
and was beyond the authorization of the Article 16 (4). The initial 4 (A)
stated that “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any
provision for reservation in matters of promotion to any class or classes of
posts in the services under the State in favor of the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately
represented in the services under the State.”
85th Amendment
A seniority clause was
amended in 2001, which was the 85th amendment and this amendment replaced the
words "in matters of promotion to any class" with the words "in
matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, to any class". The
lines "adequately represented in the services under the State" were
not removed from the article and it was causing a lot of confusion and
uncertainty in the process of reservation for promotions for the backward
classes of the society.
Supreme court stipulation
On 19th October 2006,
the Supreme Court of India upheld the timely amendments that had been made to
the article, more so in case of consequential seniority. However, the court
placed a stipulation in front of the concerned states that are willing to adopt
the reservation in promotions. The stipulation was that in each case, the
existence of compelling reasons which include backwardness, inadequacy of
representation and overall administrative efficiency should be determined and
presented before making provisions for reservation.
117th Amendment efforts by government
In the 117th amendment,
the government is making efforts to remove the necessity of producing the proof
for backwardness as directed by the Supreme Court. The government is stating
the reason that it is quite a difficult task to collect quantifiable data
backwardness of the class and inadequacy of representation of that class in
public employment.
Challenges
The main question that
arises in the minds of the people is that as the government is claiming the
process of collecting and exhibiting the data which could prove the
backwardness factor as a difficult one, is the basis for reservation of
promotions unreasonable in nature. Another important point that challenges the
government’s efforts is that irrespective of the fact that the person is
financially strong or weak, if the candidate belongs to the reserved
categories, benefits may be availed, which contradicts the concept of equality.