In the light of complaints over irregular implementation of reservation in promotion following the Supreme Court order, the Social Welfare Department has asked departments to submit details of promotions effected by them as per the Consequential Seniority to Act, 2017, that provides reservation in promotions to government employees belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Complaints of promotions not effected in line with the legislation has been there for sometime in the Police, Urban Development, Fire Services, Transport, Agriculture, Public Works, and Forest Departments, among many others. The direction from the Social Welfare Department came after the Karnataka State Government SC/ST Employees Association petitioned Social Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu over the issue. The Additional Chief Secretary, Social Welfare Department, will be chairing a meeting on January 21 to review the implementation.
The reservation in promotion has been a burning issue over the last couple of years after two separate Supreme Court decisions caused confusion in the bureaucracy. If the first order that quashed the earlier legislation for reservation in promotion resulted in nearly 4,000 SC/ST employees being demoted, the second order that came in May 2019 upheld the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (to the Posts in Civil Services of the State) Act, 2017, that meant the reinstatement of those demoted and drawing of fresh seniority list. The committee, however, said that the compliance with the court order and the Act had been poor.
The petition submitted by the committee president D. Chandrashekaraiah pointed at specific instances in departments where the reservation in promotion as per the 1978 order had not been followed while giving promotion.
The committee has sought action under the Untouchability Offences Act, 1955, against those officials who are responsible for delay and confusion and has urged the Social Welfare Department to set up a cell to hear grievances pertaining to the issue.
