Government Says SC/ST Staff Automatically Entitled to Promotion Quota

Automatic Promotion of SC/ST Employees – Government of India has told the Supreme Court that SC/ST government employees were automatically entitled for promotion quota and shown their inability to follow the M Nagraj judgement siting difficulties in collecting the data to determine their backwardness is not feasible and desirable.

Centre said a community was added to the list of Scheduled Castes after Parliament passed a bill to that effect on being satisfied that members of that community suffered “extreme social and economic backwardness arising out of traditional practice of untouchability”. 

Government also insisted that Once a community is included as SC or ST based on backwardness, the test of ‘backwardness’ is met. They further added in supreme court that while economic backwardness may be quantifiable, it is difficult to find a proxy to determine social backwardness.

In 2006, the Supreme Court had said in the M Nagraj judgment that if the state felt compelled to give reservation in promotion to SC/ST employees, it must collect quantifiable data to prove their backwardness while not compromising the Article 335 requirement to maintain administrative efficiency. On maintaining administrative efficiency, the Centre said quota in promotion was not available in sensitive posts which require great skill like judges of superior courts where efficiency in administration would exclude reservation in promotion.