The State government is planning to create supernumerary posts across various departments to protect employees belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who now face demotion as the government has started implementing the Supreme Court order that struck down reservation in promotion.
“The government will create supernumerary posts where ever possible. This will be to protect officers,” Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha told The Hindu . She also said that the government will consider how the officers facing demotion will react to the situation and take a call based on that.
A supernumerary post is usually created to accommodate a permanent officer till he is absorbed substantively in a regular permanent post. This is not new in the State bureaucracy as it created similar posts in 1996-97 to protect the employees following a Supreme Court order on the same issue. Sources in the government added that this is done only in exceptional or extraordinary situations where the cases were few.
A circular issued on Tuesday to implement the seniority list to effect promotions to general category employees of the government, as per the apex court order, has created much apprehension among thousands of SC/ST employees, especially those closer to retirement. While the circular spoke about promotion, it was not clear about the demotion as it merely asked for the list of those officials who are likely to be demoted.
However, the decision of the government to create supernumerary posts could spell some relief to SC/ST employees, who were facing demotion threat, since a large number of them are closer to retirement. A demotion would mean loss of posts as well as their pensions that would be fixed at a far lower rate.
“In the 90s, supernumerary posts that were created were not big in number. However, this time around, the number could be far higher. We have to see how it will pan out. Also, it is to be seen how the courts will view it,” government sources said.
The current situation stems from the Supreme Court set deadline to the State government to announce seniority list and consequentially effect promotions. A ballpark figure put the number of those to be affected, either with promotion or demotion, to about 50,000 employees of the total around 6 lakh State government employees.
“Some officials, who held higher posts due to reservation in promotions, are feeling let down. If the orders are implemented, they will suddenly come down in the hierarchy — in a majority of the cases, two posts below the current post they hold,” said a source. Already, many have gone on leave or are toying with the idea of voluntary retirement, which could protect their status and also pension, sources said.
