The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law by the Karnataka state government that allows for reservations in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The SC on Friday upheld 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) Act, 2018. The act which is referred to as a ‘catch-up clause’ will be beneficial to almost 3,799 government employees in Karnataka.
“There is merit in the submission of the State of Karnataka that progression in a cadre based on promotion cannot be treated as the acquisition of creamy layer status,” the Supreme Court bench of Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said.
“… once an opinion has been formed by the state government on the basis of the report submitted by an expert committee which collected, collated and analysed relevant data, it is impossible for the court to hold that the compelling reasons… have not been established. Even if there were to be some errors in data collection, that will not justify the invalidation of a law which the competent legislature was within its power to enact,” it said.
“The constitutional validity of the Reservation Act 2018 has been upheld,” the court ordered.
The Karnataka government had passed a similar law in 2002 which was then challenged for its validity. The act was again challenged in the years 2006, 2011 and 2017.
“I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court for upholding our [government’s] Act, when I was [chief minister], on providing quota for SC/ST promotions for government employees. This will promote social justice as [people] from marginalized sections gets to lead [important] posts and reduce discrimination (sic),” tweeted Karnataka’s former CM Siddaramaiah.