BHUBANESWAR: As litigations over faulty implementation of reservation have marred recruitment to various State civil services posts, the General Administration department has issued a circular to all departments to strictly follow the quota principles while making the appointments.
The principles laid down by the GA department are based on the July 18, 2007 ruling of the Supreme Court in Rajesh Kumar Daria vs Rajasthan Public Service Commission.
What is surprising is that it took more than 13 years for the State government to come out with a circular for implementation of the apex court ruling. This is not the only instance of government inertia in the implementation of Supreme Court orders on contentious issues of vertical and horizontal reservations and reservation in promotion leading to court cases.
A case in point is the recruitment to various cadres of Odisha Civil Services in 2011. The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) advertisement to recruit candidates for several posts, including OAS officers, was challenged in the Orissa High Court on the quantum of reservations of seats that far exceeded the 50 per cent (pc) limit.
The December 2011 advertisement was made for recruitment to 494 posts in different categories and cadres. More than 66 pc of these seats are earmarked for reserved category candidates, including 27 pc for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) candidates. This despite Supreme Court capping the total reservation at 50 pc. The recruitment process was delayed by over four years due to stay order by Odisha Administrative Tribunal which was upheld by the High Court.
The post-based principle for reservation is the other contentious issue due to which, affected parties preferred to move court to get relief. It is often seen that wrong interpretation of the Supreme Court order by appointing authorities has led to confusion and legal complications.
The Supreme Court in the case of RK Sabharwal vs. State of Punjab, held that the reservation should be determined on the basis of number of posts in the cadre and not on the basis of vacancies. Accordingly, post-based reservation was introduced from July 2,1997. The same principle was implemented in Odisha in 2008 after a gap of 12 years.
“Reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) in public employment is a bitterly contested issue between the Supreme Court and Parliament. It was finally settled by the apex court in 2006 in the famous M Nagraj vs Union of India. The catch-up principle was implemented in the State in 2015,” said SEBC activist Dambarudhar Ghana.
He said as per Article 141 and 142 of the constitution the order of the Supreme Court is binding on all courts within the territory of India and it is applicable to those who are not party to the dispute.