Jan 28, 2022, Friday
The Supreme Court on Friday,
January 28, 2022, refused to lay down
the “yardstick” for determining the inadequacy of representation for granting
reservation in promotions for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates in
government jobs. It held ‘cadre’ and not class, group or the entire service as
the unit for purpose of collection of quantifiable data for giving promotion
quotas.
The court stuck firm by its
Constitution Benches decisions in Jarnail Singh and M. Nagaraj cases that the
question of adequate representation of an SC/ST communities ought to be left to
the respective States to determine.
“In the light of Jarnail Singh
and Nagaraj, we cannot lay down any yardstick for determining the inadequacy of
representation,” a Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao noted.
In respect of the unit of
collection of quantifiable data, the court held that the State was “obligated
to collect quantifiable data on the inadequacy of representation of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes.”