Following Thursday’s Supreme Court verdict striking down the consequential seniority in promotions awarded by the State government for SC/ST employees since 1978, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the State would appeal before the apex court.
“We are examining the order. I have spoken to the Advocate General and other legal experts about appealing before the Supreme Court. We will discuss in detail before deciding the next course of action,” he told presspersons in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Major shuffle
The verdict is likely to result in a major shuffle at all levels for hundreds of employees across 63 State departments. While the order has fixed a three-month period for demoting those promoted under the reserved category, those in the General and Other Backward categories awaiting promotions for years are likely to get them now.
“Consequential seniority” means that a situation will arise where a person from the SC/ST community of lesser experience will be promoted over a “senior” from the General category. This flipping of seniority will remain throughout the careers of the officers.
The verdict was delivered by a Supreme Court Bench comprising justices U.U. Lalith and Adarsh Kumar Goel in the B.K. Pavithra and Others Vs Union of India and Others civil appeal filed in 2011. It said that the mere fact that there is no proportionate representation in promotional posts for the population of SCs and STs is not by itself enough to grant consequential seniority to promotees, who are otherwise junior, and thereby denying seniority to those given promotions later, on account of reservation policy.
