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The Supreme Court on Friday, 28 January, ruled that it cannot lay down a yardstick to determine the adequacy of Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) representation in government job promotions, directing the states to collect quantifiable data in the matter.
The SC bench of Justices Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna, and B R Gavai stated:
Further, the court observed that unit of collection for collecting data pertaining to promotional posts should be 'cadre' and not the entire services.
The apex court went on to assert that apart from data collection, the assessment of inadequacy of representation should be taken up following a periodic review.
The time period for the review should be reasonable and is up to the states to decide, Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.
Previously, the Union government had apprised the court that it is a 'fact of life' that SC and ST communities had not been brought to the same level of merit as other classes, The Indian Express reported.
(With inputs from Bar and Bench.)
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