RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh high court has dismissed an application of the state government seeking modification or cancellation of its stay order on reservation in promotions.
On October 22, 2019, the Chhattisgarh government issued a notification, regarding quota in promotions. It specified 13% reservation for scheduled castes and 32% for scheduled tribes from class-1 to class-4 government employees.
Raipur resident S Santosh Kumar, through lawyer Yogeshwar Sharma, filed a PIL challenging this notification.The petition argued that reservation in promotions goes against the Supreme Court’s orders and reservation rules, and demanded that the government revoke it.
The HC imposed a stay on the notification. On December 2, 2019, advocate general Satish chandra Varma admitted to an error in preparing it. The court gave a week’s time to rectify this mistake.
When no significant action was taken, a division bench of then chief justice P R Ramchandra Menon and justice P P Sahu ordered a stay on the notification and directed the government to formulate rules again within two months as per regulations.
The government sought a modification or cancellation of the stay on reservations so that promotions of reserved category government employees that had been withheld for four years could move forward. The intervenors sought modification of the 2019 order, citing the urgency of issuing pending promotion orders as per the SC May 1, 2023, interim order. They argued that this delay had affected their career advancement.
The HC, turned down the modification requests, pointing out that no formal applications were filed earlier for such an amendment, and that the 2019 order did not impede regular promotions based on seniority. The HC has listed the case for a final hearing in January 2024, awaiting the outcome of a related special leave petition plea in the SC.