india

Updated: May 10, 2019 16:54 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Karnataka law granting reservation in promotions to state government employees who belong to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

The judgment pertained to a set of challenges against the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Act 2018, which gives a one-time promotion to SC/ST employees, and is referred to as a “catch-up” clause.

The issue dates back to 2002, when the Karnataka government had enacted a similar law, which was challenged for its validity under the Constitution. In 2006, a Constitutional Bench had upheld the validity of the proposal though it said that quantifiable data had to be collected by the state to determine backwardness of the SC/STs.

The Act was again challenged in 2011, and in 2017, the Supreme Court held that it was necessary for “the state to place material on record that there was compelling necessity for such exercise of such power and decision of the state was based on material including the study that overall efficiency is not compromised”. As no such exercise had been conducted by the state government it held that the Act violated sections 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As a result, 3,799 SC/ST employee beneficiaries had been demoted.

In the following months, the Karnataka government constituted a committee under the then chief secretary K Ratna Prabha to study the backwardness and inadequacy of representation of employees from the SC/ST communities. Based on this it had moved the Reservation Bill, which became an Act last year.

However, the Act was challenged on the grounds that it had not addressed the issues raised in the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court, in what is referred to as the BK Pavitra case.

In Friday’s judgment, Judges UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud held: “Following the decision in B K Pavitra I, the State government duly carried out the exercise of collating and analysing data on the compelling factors adverted to by the Constitution Bench… The Reservation Act 2018 has cured the deficiency which was noticed by B K Pavitra in respect of the Reservation Act 2002. The Reservation Act 2018 does not amount to a usurpation of judicial power by the state legislature.”

With the judgment, a Karnataka government official said the demoted SC/ST employees would be restored to their original rank and their pay scale would be revised retrospectively from the date of their demotion.

Reacting to the verdict, state social welfare minister Priyank Kharge told HT that this was a welcome decision and would benefit SC/ST employees. “We will ensure that the reversion of the demoted employees is implemented in such a way that it does not affect other employees.”

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, too, welcomed the decision. “I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court for upholding our [government’s] Act, when I was [chief minister], on providing quota for SC/ST promotions for government employees. This will promote social justice as [people] from marginalized sections gets to lead [important] posts and reduce discrimination (sic),” he tweeted.