The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked all departments of central government to collect the data on inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes before implementing the policy of reservation in promotion in government offices.
The move is likely to benefit Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officials who have not been promoted for the past six years. The CSS comprises middle to senior management rank officials in various Union government ministries, and in an unprecedented turn of events in February, around 1,500 officials had assembled at Personnel Minister Jitendra Singh’s office to mark their protest.
On April 12, DoPT sent a memorandum to all Union government offices where it laid down the procedure to be followed prior to effecting reservations in the matter of promotions.
It said that following a January 28 Supreme Court judgement, the Attorney General has opined that three conditions are to be met while implementing the policy of reservation in promotions.
“(i) Collection of quantifiable data regarding inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; (ii) Application of this data to each cadre separately; and (iii) If a roster exists, the unit for operation of the roster would be the cadre or which the quantifiable data would have to be collected and applied in regard to the filling up of the vacancies in the roster.”
The order said that all the ministries and departments are required to ensure that the conditions are complied with before implementing the policy of reservation in promotions and carrying out any promotions based thereon.
It added that in order to ensure maintenance of efficiency of administration, the promotion committee shall carefully assess the suitability of the officers being considered for promotion.
According to CSS Forum, an association of government officers, there are 6,210 officers in the rank of section officer, under secretary, deputy secretary, director and joint secretaries in central government offices. Of this total strength, as many as 1,839 positions are vacant as officials have not been promoted.
