A division bench of Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Rituraj Awasthi clarified that the existing rules on the basis of which the government has been pushing with the reservation policy in the promotion are not legally sustainable.
The HC also struck down rule 8a of the consequential seniority rules as amended in 2007, holding that they are not in conformity with Supreme Court directives. The court also quashed a number of seniority lists of various government departments which had been prepared on the basis of the said rules. The court also quashed the government orders which required the government departments to apply provision of reservation in promotion following the 2007 amendment.
The order came on a bunch of writ petitions filed by Prem Kumar and others. It had been pleaded by senior advocate SK Kalia that although the Supreme Court had upheld the reservation in promotion, yet had also fixed certain guidelines for a state government while making such provision specifically. It was also argued that the state government did not exercise its power to frame relevant rules in respect of reservation in promotion and that the rules framed much ago were not legally sustainable. He argued that by giving consequential seniority to SC/ST category in promotion, even the most junior jumped over his senior of a general category. He pleaded that the rule 8a was unjust and arbitrary.
Source:TOI
