Is the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka dragging its feet on implementing the reservation in promotions to the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe government employees?
Despite the president's assent to the bill (given on June 14, 2018), the government claims it has to wait till October 3, when the Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging the legality of the new law. The BJP has alleged that the government is "anti-reservation" and "anti-dalit" as it is “indulging in delay tactics”.
Said D. S. Veeraiah, state president of the SC Morcha, "The Supreme Court has upheld the quota in promotions and Attorney General K. K. Venugopal, who represented the Centre, argued in favour of the quota. However, the state government had done little to implement the quota despite the president's assent to the new Act. We demand immediate implementation of the reservation."
Meanwhile, the state government's delay in implementing the quota, has created a rift within the coalition, too, as the ministers belonging to the SC/ST community suspect that many in the government are unwilling to upset the general category employees, who stand to lose their promotion if the new law is implemented.
On February 9, 2017, the Supreme Court struck down the consequential seniority in promotions awarded by the Karnataka government for SC/ST employees since 1978 (in B.K. Pavithra vs Union of India case). It also set a three-month deadline to demote the employees promoted under the reservation category.
The previous Congress government not only filed a review petition, but also constituted a committee under then additional chief secretary K. Ratna Prabha to study the status of the SC/ST government employees. The review petition was dismissed. The committee found that promotions were in line with the efficiency, backwardness and inadequacy of the SC/ST backlogs in the state.
The government decided to circumvent the SC order and passed a bill [Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the posts of Civil Services of the State) Act, 2017] in the Assembly on November 2017. The bill was sent to Governor Vajubhai Vala, who referred it to the president.
The new legislation was challenged by one M. Nagraj in the court. To comply with the SC order, the state government had released a new seniority list. As many as 5,000 SC/ST employees were demoted and an equal number from the general category was promoted.
In its latest ruling on September 26, the apex court upheld reservations in promotion (15 per cent for SC and 3 per cent for ST), but sought to keep the "creamy layer" out of the reservation benefit. While, the "creamy layer" rule applies only to OBC reservation, the apex court asking states to grant quota in promotion for SC/ST employees only after backing it with data to show their inadequate representation in the cadre, has triggered a fresh debate.
