Cabinet to end dereservation of SC/ST posts
October 8, 2008: The Indian Express
The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday is all set to amend the SC/ST(Reservation in Posts and Services) Act by passing a statutory order banning dereservation of posts in seats reserved for SC/STs, penal action against officials not implementing the reservation policy satisfactorily and training of SC/ST candidates who do not meet administrative requirements for being appointed to the reserved posts.
The reservation policy has so far been implemented through an executive order and while the SC judgement in the landmark Indira Sawhney case had granted legal validity to the executive order, the proposed amendment seeks to go a step further and provide a statutory status to it. The order seeks to prevent vacant SC/ST seats from being dereserved for the general category and also ensure greater recruitment of SC/ST candidates. The larger aim of the amendments is to ensure that the government plays a pro-active rule in increasing the representation of SC/STs in government jobs.
Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Meira Kumar and Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan had pushed for these changes after complaints that vacant SC/ST seats were being filled by General Category candidates through executive orders. It was alleged that the clause in Section 11 of the Reservation Bill-¶SC/ST vacancies shall not be filled by non-SC/STs¶ followed by ¶provided SC/ST vacancies may be de-reserved as prescribed¶ -was misused to throw open the seats lying vacant for a long time for the general category.
The government is keen to implement the amendments to the Act before the Lok Sabha polls and will push to bring it during the forthcoming session of Parliament from October 17 to counter the impact of BSP leader Mayawati.
The keenness of the government can be gauged from the fact that it chose to set aside objections from the Law Ministry regarding the ¶illegality¶ of dropping the ¶de-reservation¶ clause. The Law Ministry had pointed out that posts could not be left vacant for a long time and must be filled to ensure efficiency in administration.
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