Cabinet clears Bill to do away with merit

NEW DELHI, DECECEMBER 22: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday announced in Lok Sabha that the Cabinet had cleared a Constitut...

NEW DELHI, DECECEMBER 22: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday announced in Lok Sabha that the Cabinet had cleared a Constitution Amendment Bill to enable the state to do away with merit in the matter of reservation in promotion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Central services.

Making a statement amid thumping of desks, he said the Cabinet, at its meeting on Tuesday, had approved the proposal to bring "as early as possible" in Parliament the bill to incorporate a proviso to Article 335 of Constitution to allow the state to restore the relaxations of qualifying marks and standards of evaluation for reservation in promotion of SCs and STs.

These relaxations had been withdrawn by the then United Front government as per the instructions issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on July 22, 1997 in pursuance of a Supreme Court judgement on October one, 1996 in the case of S Vinod Kumar vs Union of India.

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Vajpayee said the National Commission for SCs and STs, which had been also consulted on this aspect, had expressed its appreciation of the proposed amendment.

He also announced the Government’s proposal to bring another constitutional amendment which would make it possible to clear the backlog of jobs through special recruitment for SCs and STs, and added this measure was also at the final stage of consideration.

A Supreme Court constitution bench in its verdict on September 16, this year had reiterated its earlier judgements regarding the principle of fixation of seniority on promotion of SC and ST employees.

Vajpayee said the legal and constitutional aspects of this verdict were under examination with a view to bringing about a constitution amendment to restore the seniority principle that was prevalent prior to these judgements.

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The Prime Minister assured that House that his government was committed to protecting the interests of SC and ST employees and would take all possible steps for their uplift.

Maintaining that certain operational guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training regarding reservation in government jobs had created some discontent among SCs and STs, he said he had made an assurance on the floor of the previous Lok Sabha that his government had already taken steps for reviewing these guidelines.