Karnataka government implements SC’s Seniority list

Context:

• The Karnataka State government has asked its department to implement the seniority list as directed by the Supreme Court.

Background:

• 2017: The Supreme Court has invalidated a provision under the ‘Karnataka Determination of Seniority of the Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the posts in the civil services of the State) Act’, 2002.
• The provision granted reservation in promotion to Schedule tribe and Schedule caste employees.
• 2018: The Karnataka government has asked its departments to revise the promotion list of employees as per the orders of the Supreme Court.

Justification of Supreme Court’s judgment:

The justification of Supreme Court’s judgment is as follows:

• The Act was doing away with the ‘catch-up’ rule and provided consequential seniority to in-service ST/Sc employees.

Know more about consequential seniority

Know more about catch-up rule

• Consequential seniority was to an extent violating Article 14 and Article 16 of the Indian constitution.
• According to Article 16(4A), exercise for determining ‘inadequacy of representation’, ‘backwardness’ and ‘overall efficiency’ is a must for the exercise of Article 16(4A).

Know more about Article 14 and Article 16 in the Constitution of India 1949

Impact of the judgment:

The impact of the judgment will be as follows:

• At least about 50,000 will see changes in their designations, either with a promotion or a demotion.
• Thousands of general category employees will be promoted.
• Many of ST/SC employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will have to be demoted to accommodate the general category employees.
• This judgment will affect 65 departments on the government.
• Note: This judgment doesn’t affect those who are retired or those who have taken financial benefits already.
• It may have a huge impact on election prospects.

Conclusion:

• This move by the Supreme Court is thus a major shift in the bureaucracy.