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The Supreme Court today, in a bench comprising of Hon’ble Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, upheld the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Act 2018. This provides for consequential seniority to people belong to the SC/ST community, who are promoted under the reservation policy of the State. This law does not amount to the usurpation of judicial power by the State Legislature and the Reservation Act is an exercise of the enabling power conferred by the Constitution under Article 16(4A).
This Act was said to be unconstitutional under B.K Pavitra in the ground that,xercise for determining 'inadequacy of representation', 'backwardness' and the impact on 'overall efficiency' had not preceded the enactment of the law. Subsequent to this, the Ratna Prabha Committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary was asked to submit a report stating the backwardness and inadequacy of representation of SC/ST in the State Civil Services and the impact of reservation on the administrative efficiency in Karnataka. On basis of this report the Act was introduced and the assent of the President was received.
It was contended there lay no reason per say to overrule B.K Pavitra I apart from political reasons. It was said that the Ratna Prabha report was flawed and did not correctly, represent the reservation as well as the administrative efficiency. Along with this several writ petitions were also filed challenging the Act.
However, on challenging these contentions, the first argument which was put forward was the fact that the President had the choice to grant assent or to not grant it, however he granted the assent, which proves the validity. Secondly, the report by the Ratna Prabha Committee was reached upon through valid means and methods and hence, the validity of that cannot be questioned.Thirdly, the concept of the creamy layer does not arise in dealing with the validity of an Act. Lastly, the data which had been collected was quantifiable data on the representation of SCs and STs which was submitted by the State of Karnataka. The Hon’ble Bench also held that the provisions in regard to retrospectivity in the Ratna Prabha Committee report are neither arbitrary nor unconstitutional.
It can be seen from this judgment that the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Act 2018, constitutionally valid.
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