Supreme Court Refuses To Express Views On Discontinuation Of Reservation; Moots Periodical Review Of Data On Inadequate Representation

While refusing to express any view on discontinuation of reservation in public employment, the Supreme Court opined that the data collected to establish inadequacy of representation, which forms the basis for providing reservation for promotions, should be reviewed periodically.

The bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai was considering the submission made by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan that it is time for reservation in public employment to be discontinued. "The lion's share of reservation for members of SCs and STs accrued to the benefit of a select few within these categories", the senior counsel had submitted. He submitted that there should be a review to appraise whether certain groups/classes within these categories had achieved the desired representation.

"We are not inclined to express any view on discontinuation of reservations in totality, which is completely within the domain of the legislature and the executive.", the bench observed.

The court noted that there is near unanimity amongst the counsel for both sides that the data collected to establish inadequacy of representation, which forms the basis for providing reservation for promotions should be reviewed periodically. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for members of the reserved categories, had supported the submissions of the learned Attorney General for India that a review should be conducted every 10 years.

"As regards review, we are of the opinion that data collected to determine inadequacy of representation for the purpose of providing reservation in promotions needs to be reviewed periodically. The period for review should be reasonable and is left to the Government to set out.", the court observed.

The court also refused to lay down a yardstick for determining the adequacy of representation of SCs and STs in promotional posts for the purpose of providing reservation. Laying down of criteria for determining the inadequacy of representation would result in curtailing the discretion given to the State Governments, the bench added.

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