The division bench of the High Court set aside promotions under the 2002 Madhya Pradesh Public Service Rules – that reserves 16 per cent posts for scheduled castes and 20 per cent for scheduled tribes in elevations – saying they violated Supreme Court guidelines. The state BJP government will challenge the order in the Supreme Court at a time when the NDA administration at the Centre is reaching out to scheduled castes across the country. The rules were brought in by the then Congress government.

“The existing provision relating to reservation, backlog vacancies and carry forward of backlog vacancies...contained in the Rules of 2002 runs contrary to the constitutional provisions contained in clause (4A) and (4B) of Article 16 and Article 335 and law predicated in M Nagraj,” the HC said. The decision comes amid a nationwide debate on lingering caste-based discrimination in educational campuses and workplaces following the January suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula.

India provides quotas for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes to compensate for historical oppression but affirmative action is generally capped at the entry level. Critics say reservations in promotions will wreak havoc with merit and hurt deserving candidates. “All promotions under the Rules of 2002 will be reverted and the gradation lists of various departments will have to be redrawn as prior to the enactment of Rules of 2002,” said advocate Amol Shrivastava, who represented one of the petitioners.

In 2006, the top court said states couldn’t provide quotas in promotions without collecting “quantifiable” data showing “backwardness” of the class and their inadequate representation on public employment, in addition to compliance with Article 335 that gives states power to provide reservation in promotion. This verdict — Nagraj vs Union of India — was being violated by the Madhya Pradesh state rule, the HC held. As a result of this verdict, quotas in promotions in other states are rendered vulnerable to legal challenges.

The BSP – that counts the Dalit population as its primary support base – has been demanding a constitutional amendment to overrule the Supreme Court order. But the bill is stuck in Parliament due to opposition within sections of the BJP over the amendment sought.

The state furnished the data of 16763 posts reserved for SC and ST are vacant in different departments since 2002-2011. The High Court said the data furnished by the government were from the 2001 census that was relevant to determine representation at the initial recruitment stage but not in the case of promotions. The High Court judgement was hailed by the government servants belonging to upper caste while it was condemned by the SC and ST government servants.

The judgement has placed the state government in a dilemma. If the government challenges the High Court, as it has already decided, it will alienate the upper caste government servants and if it does not, then it will loose the support of these communities not only in Madhya Pradesh but even in other states.

This will be great setback for the BJP which is trying to woo scheduled caste voters. BJP has realised that if it wants to retain power at the centre and wants to capture governments in states like Uttar Pradesh, it must take all possible steps to please and if necessary to appease the Dalit votes. The organisation of S/C and S/T government servants suspect that the government may not put up effective defence of the reservation policy.

Meanwhile, the MP government in general and the chief minister in particular found themselves in an embarrassing position when two cabinet ministers hailing from Bhopal and also BJP member of parliament and legislators openly opposed the smart city project for Bhopal. The two cabinet ministers are Babulal Gaur and Uma Shanker Gupta, the BJP MP is Alok Sanjar and legislators are Vishvash Sarang, Surendra Nath Singh and Rameshwer Sharma.

They claimed that the areas where the government wants to build smart city is already a very well-developed area of the city. According to the project more than two thousand houses will have to be demolished and more than 30 thousand trees have to be uprooted for implementing so called smart city project. All of them have urged the chief minister to select alternate area for developing smart city. Besides BJP legislator the solitary Congress legislator from Bhopal have also lent support to the BJP legislator’s stand. The public posture taken by two ministers and party MP and MLAs is being regarded as a mini-revolt. (IPA Service)