SC,ST promotions: Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government to move Supreme Court

Hours after the Madhya Pradesh High Court set aside the provision of reservations in promotion in the state government services, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday said his government will move to the Supreme Court challenging the order.

"My government is in favour of reservation in promotions and we will be appealing in the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling," Chouhan told ANI.

Earlier in the day, the ruling of the division bench of Chief Justice Ajay Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Yadav had set aside the provision of reservations in promotion in the state government services.

The decision came while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by R B Rai, Santosh Kumar, S C Pandey and others, who challenged 2002 rules on the ground that they were not in conformity with the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the M Nagraj vs. Union in 2006.

The state high court in observation noted that the existing provision relating to reservation, backlog vacancies, carry forward of backlog vacancies...contained in the Rules of 2002 runs contrary to the constitutional provisions contained in clause (4A) and (4B) of Article 16 and Article 335 and law predicated in M Nagraj.

The court further added that consequently, various promotions of SCs/STs category made on the basis of these Rules of 2002 are held to be non-est in the eyes of law and the persons be placed in the position as if the said Rules never existed and all actions taken in furtherance thereof must be reverted to status quo ante (the situation existing earlier).