The State government seems to have set in motion the process to implement a legislation, providing reservation in promotion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes employees, by seeking legal opinion on the issue.
The decision coming amid bypolls, to three parliamentary and two legislative assembly constituencies, has ruffled the feathers of general category employees who have approached the Election Commission seeking its direction not to implement the Act citing model code of conduct.
While the Supreme Court is set for a final hearing on the issue next week, the government, sources said, has been under pressure from SC/ST employees association, which is seeking implementation of the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the basis of Reservation (to the posts in Civil Services of the State) Act, 2017, which came into force in June this year.
General category employees are urging the government to wait for the SC order since the Act has been challenged.
Social Welfare Minister Priyank Kharge confirmed that the government had sought legal opinion from Karnataka’s advocate Mukul Rohtagi and Attorney-General Uday Holla on implementation of the Act.
“The State has also filed an affidavit in the court stating that the government wants to go ahead with the implementation pending the final order. Bihar has also done a similar thing earlier in June this year,” he told The Hindu.
According to him, the State, in previous hearings, has been pleading with the court to allow it to implement the Act.
The Minister said that the process of demotions taken up after the Supreme Court ruling last year had affected over 6,000 SC/ST employees directly and as a cascading effect it is set to affect 32,000 to 40,000 employees in the future. “Demotion has caused serious stress,” he said.
Sources said that the legal opinion has been sought after a delegation of SC/ST employees met Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar on Monday and discussed the issue.
A senior government functionary and a member of SC/ST association said that they were within their constitutional rights to seek implementation of the act.
“All contempt petitions have been quashed and orally the court has been informed about the government’s intention to implement the Act subject to the final decision of the court,” a senior government official said.
Memorandum submitted
Meanwhile, Ahimsa, the organisation that represents general category, backward classes and minority employees, has approached the Election Commission on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum to Chief Electoral Officer, urging the commission not to allow implementation of the Act since the model code of conduct is in place.
“SC/ST Ministers and officials are wrongly interpreting the court order and urging the government to implement the Act. The action of the government is illegal. Government may take action to woo the SC/ST voters for their parties during this byelections,” the memorandum said.
A similar memorandum has been submitted to the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary.
According to a Ahimsa functionary, the government can wait till the court order. “What is the hurry to implement the act without the permission of the court? We have told the government that we will resort to non-cooperation if the act is hurriedly implemented,” the functionary said.
When contacted for his reaction, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said: “Normally no new policy decision can be implemented during the electoral process. However, court orders can be implemented. I have not seen the memorandum yet and I cannot comment on this particular issue.”