Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said his government will find out a way to help the states with reservations in job promotions for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (SC\/STs), struck down by the apex court, and could amend the constitution for the purpose if needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will find out a way to help the states overcome the problem after the scheme framed by various states was struck down by the Supreme Court\u2026 If there is a need for a constitutional amendment, we will bring a bill which is legally sustainable,\u201d said the prime minister in his concluding remarks at the all-party meeting on the issue, called by him at his official residence here.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the government and the Congress were in favour of such a quota, said informed sources.<\/p>\n
While most parties supported the quota, some parties told the government not to rush over the matter. Samajwadi Party representative Ram Gopal Yadav opposed the quota in job promotions, said the sources.<\/p>\n
As the meeting began, the prime minister urged political parties to suggest ways for a legally sustainable solution to the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is exploring the possible solution of the current situation\u2026Your suggestions will be of immense help to decide on the issue\u2026I request you to provide your valuable suggestions so that a legally sustainable solution may be arrived at,\u201d the prime minister said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n
According to a statement from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, the meeting was called in the light of the Supreme Court judgment in April striking down the provision of reservation in promotions to members of the two sections in Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the government was committed to protecting the interests of the two sections of the society.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may be aware that the government had always been committed to protect the interests of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and on certain occasions did not hesitate even to bring constitutional amendments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the statement from the PMO, the Supreme Court in November 1992 held reservations in promotions as unconstitutional, but allowed its continuation for five years as a special case.<\/p>\n
The 77th Amendment to the Constitution was made in 1995 inserting clause 4A to Article 16 before expiry of the five-year period, which enabled the government to continue reservation for the SC\/STs in job promotions, the statement said.<\/p>\n
The clause was further modified through the 85th Amendment to give benefit of consequential seniority to the SC\/ST candidates promoted by reservation, said the statement.<\/p>\n
The 81st Amendment also added clause 4B to Article 16, which permits to treat the backlog of reserved vacancies as a separate and distinct group, to which the limit of 50 percent may not apply.<\/p>\n
This enabled the government to launch special recruitment drives to fill up the backlog vacancies reserved for the SCs\/STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).<\/p>\n
Later, the 82nd Amendment was made to the Constitution whereby a proviso was incorporated in Article 335 enabling the government to give relaxations\/concessions to the SC and ST candidates in the matter of promotion, said the statement.<\/p>\n
The validity of all these four amendments was challenged before the Supreme Court on the ground that these altered the Constitution\u2019s basic structure, but the apex court in October 2006 upheld their validity.<\/p>\n
However, the apex court stipulated that the state concerned will have to show in each case the existence of the compelling reasons, namely, backwardness, inadequacy of representation, and overall administrative efficiency before making provisions for reservation, the statement added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said his government will find out a way to help the states with reservations in job promotions for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (SC\/STs), struck down by the apex court, and could amend the constitution for the purpose if needed. \u201cWe will find out a way to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[12621,12627,12623,12619,12625,12620,12622,12624,1697,12628,12626,4618,4619],"class_list":["post-22673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-law-news","tag-amendment-bill","tag-government-to-launch-special-recruitment-drives","tag-legally-sustainable-solution","tag-pm-hints-at-amendment-bill-for-quota-in-job-promotions","tag-provision-of-reservation-in-promotions","tag-quota-in-job-promotions","tag-ram-gopal-yadav-opposed-the-quota-in-job-promotions","tag-reservations-in-job-promotions","tag-samajwadi-party","tag-sc-and-st-candidates","tag-scsts-in-job-promotions","tag-scheduled-castes","tag-scheduled-tribes"],"yoast_head":"\n