Journalism of Courage
Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over the Supreme Court ruling on reservation in promotions and said he will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a request to introduce a Bill in Parliament to make a law for reservation in promotions.
In a statement, the Republican Party of India (A) president said reservation provided by the Constitution to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes should be applicable at every place and sector.
BSP chief Mayawati said in a statement that the Supreme Court ruling could be welcomed “up to a certain extent” as the court has not put any restriction on implementing the reservation and has opined that the Centre and the state governments, if they wish to, can continue giving reservation in promotions to government employees from SC and ST categories.
The court, she said, has also reversed the 2006 order regarding collection of quantifiable data to show backwardness of the class.
Mayawati said that because of the finding in the Nagaraj case in 2006, promotion of lakhs of employees had been reverted.
“Against that, the BSP had achieved success in getting a Constitutional amendment Bill in this regard passed in Rajya Sabha. However, that Bill is still pending in Lok Sabha due to casteist policies of BJP government. That proves that neither Congress party government was serious and honest nor is BJP’s present government for ensuring constitutional rights to Dalits, tribals and other backwards,” she said.
Union Minister and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan called it a “mixed” order.
Former Secretary to Government of India, P S Krishnan, said, “There are two issues in the judgment. The first is that there is no need for quantifiable data showing backwardness in cases of SC and ST in reservation for promotion. That is a favourable point which removes an obstacle. Then they have talked about creamy layer. The problem with this is that you don’t have sufficient (SC/ST) candidates anyway. If people are eliminated on ground of creamy layer, there there may not be enough candidates available for promotion.”
Krishnan has been working in the field of social justice for SCs, STs, BCs for the last more than six-and-a-half decades.
