Case name: Jarnail Singh and Ors. V Lachhmi Narain Gupta and Ors.
Appellant: Jarnail Singh
Respondent: Lachhmi Narain Gupta
Court: Supreme Court of India
Bench: Indu Malhotra, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R.F. Nariman, Kurian Joseph, Dipak Mishra
Facts of the case:
The present case Jarnail Singh v Lachhmi Narain Gupta is a consequence of series of debates over the concept of reservation of promotions in the case of SC and ST people.
Key constitutional articles and amendments
Article 16(4): this particular article aims to provide reservation for the people from backward classes.
Article 16(4-A): this particular clause is added by the 77th amendment act in 1995 which aims to provide reservation for SC and ST candidates in promotions.
Article 16(4-B): another clause is added by the 81st amendment act in 2000, which allows the reservation in promotions even if it crosses the ceiling limit of 50% reservation, this only applies in the case of carrying forward of the unfilled reserved vacancies to subsequent years.
Key supreme court judgements which played an important role in the present case
Indra Sawhney case which was decided in the year in 1992 which held that reservations allowed under article 16(4), should not cross the limit of 50% and there is no reservation allowed in the case of promotions.
M. Nagaraj Case (2006), this judgement allowed the reservations in promotions and asked the state to provide quantifiable data to show the backwardness of the caste and prove the inadequacy of the representation of that particular caste in public employment.
The present case Jarnail Singh addressed the requirements for providing quantifiable data which is necessary to show the backwardness of the community.
Jarnail Singh and Ors challenges reservations in promotions of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in public employment.
Issues raised:
- The issues which were raised in the case of Jarnail Singh V Lachhmi Narain Gupta are
- The criteria or the procedure that is to be required while drawing the quantifiable data which shows the inadequate representation of the people from the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe communities in public employment.
- Determining the way in which the data has to be collected, finding an appropriate unit for that purpose.
- Also, whether there shall consideration of the proportionality rule while the testing the adequacy of the communities in the public employment.
- Reviewing of the said quantifiable data as and when required, so that issue was when is the appropriate time to review the data.
- The prospective application of the M. Nagaraj judgement.
- All the above-mentioned issues focuses on addressing the complexities in implementing the reservations in the case of promotions.
Contentions of the parties
Contentions of the petitioners (appellants)
- The quantifiable data which is taken to prove the backwardness of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe community is unnecessary and not required, the petitioners argued that this particular requirement is not necessary because there is enough data from the historic times to prove that how those scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities are suppressed.
- The petitioners argued that the M. Nagaraj judgement goes against the principles mentioned in the constitution, the task of collecting the quantifiable data to prove the backwardness of the community is not required and its whole idea goes against the article 16(4-A), which aims to provide reservation to scheduled caste and scheduled tribes in promotions.
- The petitioners contended that when the Nagaraj judgement asked the states to collect the quantifiable data and all that procedure which is required to collect before providing the reservation in promotions, this hectic and cumbersome procedure is not reaping any benefits instead it is leaving the people from scheduled caste and schedule tribes under-represented at the employment.
Contentions of the respondents:
- The respondents have their own views when it comes to collection of quantifiable data, they contended that this particular process of collecting the quantifiable data is often necessary and required before providing reservation in promotions, because the said data will give them enough clarity over the issue so that they can accurately calculate as to how much of these reservation in promotion in necessary.
- The quantifiable data will help them in assessing the real time situation and with that they will implement the reservation policy smoothly which also tends to prevents the misuse of reservation policy.
- Also, the respondents contended that the Nagaraj judgement is within the constitutional limits, whatever procedure is laid down in that judgement does not against the constitutional principles and it ensures that the provisions mentioned in the article 335 which aims to provide reservations does not comprise at any cost.
- The respondents argued that the Nagaraj judgment has to be applied prospectively so that the existing policies are not disturbed because retrospective application will lead to unnecessary legal complications and administrative challenges.
Rationale given by the court
- The Court then held that looking at the history of the nation as well as the STs and SCs suffering from discrimination in all other fields, they are considered to be backward. Thus, to force them to bring the data which shows the backwardness of their community every time when reservations in promotions are being implemented is unfair.
- A decision like this is taken because essentially the historical evidence of SCs, especially the STs, seems to be sufficient for assuming or presuming that they are backward which makes the job of reservation policies quite easy to execute.
- The Court was keen on pointing out that SCs and STs were not well represented in the employment sector and for which, it required reliable statistics. This requirement helps to prevent cases of favoring particular employees for promotions just for the sake of it without the necessity.
- For this, data of under representation of the SCs and STs at public employment must be available to determine that they are rightfully being promoted to the higher positions of public employment. This approach is used in order to ensure that there is proper representation of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes’ community in reservations of promotions.
- In the present judgment, the Court has again endorsed the principles set out in the M. Nagaraj case but has focused as to how those principles which were laid down in the Nagaraj judgement would be performed in reality. It alters the requirement by means of stating that the data on backwardness is not required, but at the same time, stated that data on inadequacy of representation is quite necessary.
- The Court also deliberated on the anticipated implications of the Nagaraj verdict which will make sure that subsequent policies concerning reservation in promotions are applied prospectively.
- The Court reiterated the fact that no reservation policy can be made which would be contrary to the efficiency of public administration as provided by Article 335 of the Constitution. As a reason, it can be seen that as proper action is being taken, it is done in a manner which does not compromise the capacity and effectiveness of public service delivery.
- With the help of the rule that quantifies the measurable evidence of inadequate representation, the Court tries to prevent the erosion of reservations into inefficient and impractical ideas which can cause burden to the administration.
- The judgment noted that the information used to provide the reservations should be reviewed from time to time so as to explain the lack of representation in the promotions. This way, the polices which are brought in remained efficient and actually work towards the real situation of SCs and STs in the employment of public sector.
- Thus, fresh data review as well as update helps in evaluating the continuing necessity of reservations and making relevant alterations to the policies accordingly.
- The court has given the discretion to the respective states in determining the required procedure that is to be followed while collecting the data which is necessary while implementing the reservation policy in terms of promotions.
Defects of law
There is no clear procedure mentioned, there is no set method of collecting the data which makes the whole data and procedure followed to be ambiguous.
Since the state has its discretion to provide reservations there is lack of commonality as every state will have their own laws regarding that, there are lack of national guidelines which would take care of reservation policy as a whole.
Also, the prospective application of the Nagaraj judgement would lead to some kind of uncertainty in the legal terms with respect to the promotions which were made in the past without the use of quantifiable data.
Inference
Supreme court in the judgement of Jarnail Singh v Lachhmi Narain Gupta is delved into key concepts which talks about the complexities surrounding the reservation in promotions of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities.
The court had clarified the issue whether there is a need to collect the quantifiable data as the court had reiterated there is no need to collect the quantifiable in case of proving the backwardness of the scheduled caste and schedule tribe communities since there is enough data from the past to prove it.
Instead, the court had asked to collect the data which shows the inadequate representation of those respective communities in public employment.
The court decided to apply the judgement of Nagaraj to be applied prospectively, otherwise it would lead to legal uncertainties and administrative issues.
While providing the reservation in promotion the state has to make sure that there is a proper balance between the social justice and administration, the effectiveness and efficiency of the services should not be compromised through this reservation policy.
There is need to be a regular assessment of the reservation policies, and there should be uniform application of this reservation policies across the country, this would help in maintain a proper standard with respect to reservations.
The intersectionality element has to be given due importance when it comes to reservation as stated by the court, there should be intersection of elements like gender, financial status with caste so that the reservation policy would be more effective and efficient, it would yield better results.
The above insights give enough scope to understand the real time application of reservation policies and making sure that they are applied in terms of contemporary needs.