Constitutional Amendment Bill for Reservation in Promotion to SCs and STs.

   The Rajya Sabha on Monday (December 17, 2012) passed the Constitution (One Hundred Seventeenth Amendment) Bill, 2012. The Bill proposes to amend the Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution of India. The existing Article 16(4A) provides for reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) which are not adequately represented in the Govt. services. The proposed amendment would amend Article 16(4A) in such a manner that it would obviate the need of collection of quantifiable data about adequacy of representation and backwardness of the class for reservation in promotion to the SCs and the STs.

   The Government had introduced a Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha during the last session so that the SCs and STs may continue to get reservation in promotion as in vogue now.

   As a part of the affirmative action, reservation in promotion had been available to the SCs and STs since 1955. However, some of the decisions of the Supreme Court cases such as in Indra Sawhney, Veer Pal Singh Chauhan and S.Vinod Kumar cases had caused certain effects on the scheme of reservation in promotion for SCs and STs. To overcome these effects, four Constitutional amendments, namely, 77th,81st, 82nd and 85th amendments were effected.

Rajya Sabha Passes Constitutional Amendment Bill.

   The Government of India has always been concerned about the welfare of downtrodden especially Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As a part of the affirmative action, reservation in promotion had been available to the SCs and STs since 1955. However, some decisions of the Supreme Court like in Indra Sawhney, Veer Pal Singh Chauhan and S. Vinod Kumar cases had caused certain effects on the scheme of reservation in promotion for SCs and STs. To overcome these effects, the Government had brought four Constitutional amendments, namely, 77th, 81st , 82nd and 85th amendments.

   The latest of such judgments was in M. Nagaraj case in which the Supreme Court has laid down some pre-requisite conditions for providing reservation in promotion. These conditions are, namely, assessing the quantum of representation of SCs, STs, there backwardness and effect on efficiency.