The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of a Karnataka law granting reservation in promotion to SC/ST government employees. A two-judge bench comprising Justice UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud upheld the provisions of the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority Act.
The Act, which provided for consequential seniority to persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes promoted under the reservation policy of the State of Karnataka, was passed by the state Cabinet in January with immediate effect. However, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Krishna Byre Gowda had then confirmed that the law will be scrapped if the Supreme Court rules against it. Now that the Supreme Court has upheld it, paving the way for the law to be implemented in the state.
The two-judge bench upheld the validity of the law on the grounds that an exercise for determining "inadequacy of representation", "backwardness" and the impact on "overall efficiency" had not preceded the enactment of the law.
The apex court noted that the law rectified the deficiencies pointed out in the BK Pavitra case. Pavitra was a government engineer working with the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA). She challenged the concessional seniority given to SC/ST employees in promotions in court. The case came to be known as BK Pavitra and others vs Union of India and in 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in Pavitra's favour and asked the Karnataka government to stop caste-based seniority in promotions for government posts going all the way back to 1978.
Following the verdict, thousands of SC/ST staff in the state faced demotion from their posts. The then Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha asked all government departments to complete the process of notifying the demotions and the subsequent promotions.
However, the Karnataka government in 2018 passed a new law to address the defects pointed out by the Supreme Court including lack of data on representation and its effect on the efficiency of administration. The law was also passed to protect those who were affected by the verdict passed by the top court.
Advocates Rajeev Dhavan and Kumar Parimal representing the general category of employees had sought the Supreme Court to ask the state government to comply with the judgement passed in the BK Pavitra case. The hearings on this case began in October 2018.
The court also noted that under Ratna Prabha's directive, data was collected on the representation of SC/ST employees. Based on the data collected, the court passed its verdict upholding the law formed by the Karnataka government.
However, there is no clarity if those demoted due to the new law will be given same salaries or whether similar positions will be created. The state government is yet to provide details of the implementation.