Advocates appearing for states and SC/ST employees have argued in the Supreme Court that its 2006 Nagraj judgment, putting a spoke in quota for promotion, needs to be tested by a seven-judge bench. That judgment put riders on SC/ST reservation in promotion, such as quantifiably showing backwardness of the employee and maintaining overall efficiency of administration. It forms the basis of excluding the creamy layer in promotions.

In turn, the SC bench asked sharply, “Suppose a person by virtue of reservation gets into IAS and becomes secretary through reservation in promotion. Can a very senior bureaucrat’s grandson and great-grandson be treated as backward for promotion in employment, and that too in perpetuity?”

Likewise, appearing for general candidates who are opposed to quota in promotion, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan spoke of the dangers of making reservation immortal, suggesting that if top bureaucratic posts are not given on merit it will spell disaster for the country.

Political calculations by different political parties have stymied a reasoned upgrade of the reservation process. They only keep fuelling more and more communities’ demands for reservation, where affirmative action has taken a backseat to caste consolidation. This indeed serves the country ill. In so far as quota in promotion disincentivises the pursuit of excellence, hurts governance and militates against equal treatment of all, it will hardly build a better or fairer society.