NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to set up 7-judge bench to review its 2006 order on the SC/ST quota in job promotions.
In a unanimous verdict, the apex court ruled that there will be no reservation in promotion for SC/STs in government jobs.
The court concluded the Nagaraj judgement does not need to be referred to a larger bench.Supreme Court also said there is no need to collect data on SC/ST in reservation in promotion in government services.
The verdict was delivered by a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
The unanimous judgment was pronounced by a Supreme Court constitutional bench also consisting of Justices Kurian Joseph, RF Nariman, SK Kaul and Indu Malhotra.
Justice RF Nariman clarified that there is no requirement to collect quantifiable data of backwardness of SC/STs to provide reservation, legal watchdog Live Law reported.
The verdict has virtually left it upon the state and Central government to decide as to when and in what form reservation in promotion is to be implemented.
The court’s verdict came on petitions seeking that a seven-judge bench reconsiders the court’s 2006 judgement which had put conditions for granting quota benefits in job promotions for SC/ST employees.
Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had strongly argued in favour of granting quota to SC and ST employees, saying there was a presumption of backwardness in their favour.
K K Venugopal had said the SC and ST communities have been facing caste-based discrimination for long and the stigma of caste is attached to them despite the fact that some of them have come up.
