20,000 SC/ST govt employees demoted in Karnataka to implement Supreme Court order

Karnataka has had reservations in promotions since 1978 – but the Supreme Court scrapped it in February this year, negatively affecting 20,000 people.

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Over 20,000 government employees belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes categories have been demoted after the State government started implementing the Supreme Court order that revoked reservation in promotions.

To comply with the order passed by the court, Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha had asked all departments to complete the process of notifying the demotions and the subsequent promotions.

The Supreme Court in March had ordered the state government to implement its February 9, 2017 order, striking down seniority in promotions awarded to SC/ST employees by the state.

The order was made in the case BK Pavitra and others vs Union of India. BK Pavithra, a government engineer working in the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), had challenged the concessional seniority given to SC and ST employees in promotions.

The Supreme Court ruled in Pavithra’s favour, and asked the Karnataka government to stop caste based reservation for government posts, which goes all the way back to 1978.

The implementation of the order will lead to a major reshuffle in the government departments in the state. 20,000 employees from backward and general categories will be promoted while an equal number of SC/ST employees will be demoted.

The state government had twice sought an extension to the deadline set by the Supreme Court but on March 20, the court rejected the state government’s appeal and set a deadline of April 25 when Karnataka Chief Secretary K Ratna Prabha was asked to appear in court and apprise it of the progress in implementing the order.

On Wednesday, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, Ratna Prabha confirmed that based on letters and certificates submitted by additional chief secretaries, secretaries and principal secretaries of the departments of Karnataka, the orders of the Supreme Court had been complied with.

However, the changes will not come into effect immediately for those who are involved in election work.