SC takes 30 years to implement its own judgment on SC/ST quota

NEW DELHI: More than 30 years after it mandated a 200-point-roster system for earmarking posts for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in direct recruitments, the Supreme Court has now identified staff posts reserved for SC and ST candidates but provided no quota for OBC candidates.

The judgment in R K Sabharwal case was delivered by a five-judge bench on Feb 10, 1995, during the tenure of 26th CJI A M Ahmadi, but it will be implemented now during the tenure of 52nd CJI in Justice B R Gavai, the second Dalit to head judiciary after Justice K G Balakrishnan.

CJI Gavai told TOI, “The judgement in Sabharwal case recommended implementation of 200-point roster system for identification of posts for the SC and ST candidates in each category of posts. The identification process is completed and from now onwards vacancies against each reserved post would be filled from the candidates belonging to that category of backward class candidates.”

Asked about non-inclusion of OBC quota in direct recruitments, the CJI said, "I have asked the SC Registry to initiate steps for amendment of the relevant Rules for inclusion of reservation for OBC candidates." After the Indra Sawhney judgment of 1992, a 27% quota in government jobs was introduced for candidates belonging to OBC communities, but the SC had capped the cumulative reservations at 50% of vacancies.
For the 200-point roster system, the SC has enumerated 1280 posts, majority of which comprise junior court attendants (600 posts) and junior court assistants (437). Of the total 1,280 posts, 191 has been earmarked for SC candidates and 93 for STs while the rest 996 posts would be for general category.

Since the judgment is of Feb 1995, and the central government circular is of July 1997, it is but natural that there would have been a huge backlog in filling the posts as per the roster system that intends to effectuate 15% and 7.5% quota for SCs and STs respectively.

CJI Gavai said, “The backlogs will be gradually filled. This would mean sometimes the reservations in direct recruitments would cross the cumulative 22.5% mark.”

In the Sabharwal judgment, a five-judge SC bench led by Justice Kuldip Singh had said, “The only way to assure equality of opportunity to the Backward Classes and the general category is to permit the roster to operate till the time the respective appointees/ promotees occupy the posts meant for them in the roster... As and when there is a vacancy whether permanent or temporary in a particular post the same must be filled from amongst the category to which the post belonged in the roster.”

“The cadre-strength is always measured by the number of posts comprising the cadre… Once the total cadre has full representation of the SCs/STs and Backward Classes in accordance with the reservation policy then the vacancies arising thereafter in the cadre are to be filled from amongst the category of persons to whom the respective vacancies belong,” it had said.