Supreme Court clears decks for quota to promote SC/ST employees

The government can have a promotion quota for its Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes employees "as per law" for now, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. This arrangement will continue till a Constitution bench decides on the issue, said the top court.

This comes as a major relief for the Centre, which is trying to win over SCs and STs. Multiple Union ministers have said that the Narendra Modi government was committed towards the career growth of the reserved category.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan took into account the Centre's submissions that the process of promotion had come to a "standstill" due to the orders passed by various high courts. It said the apex court too had passed different orders on appeals filed against those judgments.

"We will say you [Centre] can go ahead with promotion in accordance with law," said the bench.

To buttress the Centre's stand, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh cited case laws on the issue of quota in promotion in government jobs. For instance, he said, the top court had in the 2006 M Nagaraj verdict said that the creamy layer concept cannot be applied to the SCs and STs for promotions in government jobs.