After a long wait, there’s good news for government employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Karnataka.
President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to 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) Bill, 2017, for providing reservation in promotions for employees belonging to SC/ST communities.
The Bill was aimed at sidestepping a Supreme Court directive that struck down reservations for SC/ST persons in promotions. The court observed that determining the “inadequacy of representation, backwardness, and overall efficiency” was a must for providing such a reservation.
State Congress president G. Parameshwara has welcomed the President’s decision and said the Bill was passed during the previous Congress regime. It was passed after serious debates for and against the Bill. Former Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra had piloted the Bill. Employees from all 30 districts had come to the State capital and staged protests both for and against the Bill.
Governor Vajubhi R. Vala, who had declined to give nod to the Bill, had sent it to the President for his assent.
The new law is aimed at determining seniority of government servants promoted on the basis of reservation in the civil services posts of the State.
The State has been providing reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees since 1978 — 15% for SCs and 3% for STs.
However, the Supreme Court in the B.K. Pavithra and others vs the Union of India and others civil appeal filed in 2011, struck down reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees.
Study commissioned
In compliance with the apex court’s order, the State government conducted a study on the backwardness of SCs and STs, inadequacy of their representation in the State civil services, and the effect of reservation in promotion on the State administration.
Then Additional Chief Secretary and present Chief Secretary K. Ratna Prabha, with the assistance of other officers, collated the data and made a detailed report to the government.
The report said overall efficiency of administration has not been affected by extending reservation in promotions to SCs and STs.
It recommended continuation of reservation in promotion within the limits that will not hamper the overall efficiency of the administration.
The State government accepted the report and decided to provide consequential seniority to persons promoted on the basis of policy of reservation in the State since 1978 to ensure adequate representation of SC/STs across all departments.