Madhya Pradesh government to seek legal opinion over Supreme Court order allowing reservation in promotions

The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to seek legal opinion over the Supreme Court order allowing reservation in promotions, as it can having political implications for the ruling BJP in election year.

While the union representing reserved category employees has demanded immediate implementation of the order, the one representing general category and other backward class officials is against it.

Considering its implications ahead of the upcoming elections, the state government doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to go ahead with the implementation or move the apex court to seek a direction in the context of Madhya Pradesh.

Minister of state for general administration department Lal Singh Arya said, “Anything can be said on this only after getting a copy of the order and getting it examined legally.”

The state government had in 2002 extended reservation in promotions and given the same to a large number of employees. But the Madhya Pradesh high court quashed the ruling on a petition by an employees’ organisation representing general category and other backward classes.

The state government challenged the stay in the apex court in 2016 following an agitation by unions representing reserved communities. The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Centre to go ahead with reservation in promotion for employees belonging to SC and ST categories in “accordance with law”.

Buoyed by the order, the union representing reserved category employees — Anusuchit Jati Janjati Adhikari Karmchari Sangh (AJJAKS) — demanded its immediate implementation and submitted a memorandum to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior officials, said SL Suryanvashi, general secretary of the organisation.

However, Kedar Singh Tomar, president of Samanya Aur Pichhda Adhikari Karmchari Sangthan (SAPAKS), representing general category and other backward class employees, said the SC order was for the central government and does not apply to Madhya Pradesh or any other state automatically.

He also said that the “SC order talked of only promotion, not reservation in promotion”. “Since 2002 rules for reservation in promotion had been quashed by the high court’s Jabalpur bench and it was not in force now; there was no room for reservation in promotion,” he said.

Chief minister Chouhan had earlier assured SC/ST employees that the issue of reservation in promotions would be addressed, saying it was “their right”, leading to protests by general category employees.

Since April 2016, none of the state government employees and officials were promoted while many retired without getting the benefit of promotion. As the petition was pending before the SC for the past two years, the CM had, in March this year, extended the retirement age of government employees and officers from 60 to 62 years anticipating an SC judgment.