Should quotas be continued in perpetuity, asks top court

NEW DELHI: Weighing the legality and desirability of introducing the "

creamy layer

" elimination concept in reservation in promotion, the Supreme Court asked on Thursday whether the backwardness of

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

would persist forever, requiring the perpetuation of quotas.


This response from a five-judge bench led by CJI Dipak Misra came after a clutch of senior advocates - additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, Nidhesh Gupta, Dinesh Dwivedi, Indira Jaising, Rupinder S Suri, A Mariarputham and Sanjay Hegde - appearing for states and SC/ST employees, argued that the correctness of the SC's 2006 Nagraj judgment putting a spoke in

quota

in promotion needed to be tested by a seven-judge bench.

The bench of CJI Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indu Malhotra said, "Entry-level reservation in employment on the basis of backwardness is no problem. But what is worrying us is the accelerated promotion to all SC/ST employees without looking into their status of employment. Suppose a person by virtue of reservation gets into IAS and becomes secretary through reservation in promotion. Can a very senior bureaucrat's grandson and great-grandson be treated as backward for promotion in employment, and that too in perpetuity?"

All the lawyers seeking referral of the 2006 judgment to a seven-judge bench adopted AG K K Venugopal's argument.

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