The Scheduled Castes of Punjab comprising about a third of its population are worried about the non-implementation of reservation policy in this upper caste-dominated Punjab Govt. These anti-Dalit officials hold key posts in the State administration. No SC official is given such posts. These racist officials cheat and misguide the govt. in the State and Centre. Even Supreme Court orders are disobeyed. The clarification issued by the Supreme Court on the reservation issue is deliberately misinterpreted thereby violating our fundamental rights assured under Article 14 and 16(4) of the Constitution.
The following rate of reservations are in force for ® SC/BCs in direct recruitment transfer or promotions under the Govt. of Punjab as per the circular No.890- SW-1-74/10619 dt. 66.1974:
Circular No.2125-4-WB-64/5213 of 18.3.1964 provides that the eligible SC/BC officials will be given promotion against the reserved posts irrespective of their seniority in the general seniority list.
Till 1982 reservation policy remained almost. unimplemented and even up to 10 to 20% of reserved posts were held by non-SCs.
Court order: Upper caste officials misguide the judiciary by misinterpreting the facts of clarificatory instructions in Punjabi dt. 7.1.80 which were wrongly translated. This was challenged in the State High “Court in the case of Joginder Singh Sethi and others “Vs. Punjab govt. and others (1982(2) SLR 307). The case was of asst. cadre in the office of Chief Engineer, Irrigation dept. The court ruled:
“In the light of the above discussion it is patent that the Scheduled Castes/Backward Classes people can take advantage of the reservation made in their favour on July 30, 1970 till their representation in the cadre of Assistants in the Irrigation Department of the Punjab Govt. is reached or completed and not beyond that. For working out this | percentage the promotion/appointments in this cadre whether on the basis of reservation or otherwise have to be taken notice of.”
The above orders were to be implemented in the irrigation dept. only but once again the upper caste vested interests got these orders circulated as a mere policy direction. The State govt. challenged the order in the Supreme Court. Several writ petitions were filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The full bench of the Supreme Court upheld the order and said that:
(1) unreserved posits are not reserved for non-SCs,
(2) SCs can compete unreserved posts along with others on seniority-cum-merit,
(3) to debar SC for appointment/promotion to higher post on seniority-cum-merit purely on caste consideration is unconstitutional,
(4) roster does not stop. It is meant for SCs and non-SCs. The seniority of SC has to be reckoned from the date of his appointment by promotion to the post reserved for SCs and. his seniority inter-se cannot be reckoned with reference to the Class or Grade from which he was promoted (based on decision of Supreme Court in Karamchand case)
(5) and SC person appointed/promoted on a post is not to be counted for calculating quota of reserved posts.
Governor’s intervention: An appeal against this judgement was admitted in the Supreme Court- filed by Hindus, but the stay they asked for was refused. However, the Hindus prevailed on the State govt. for withhold implementation of the full bench judgement and no promotion was made.
Following the intervention by the Governor, the govt. was asked to implement it on 6.11.1982 and some promotions of SCs seniority-cum-merit basis were made. Following the latest order of 10.12.90 by the Supreme Court with regard to the stay of operation of the Full Bench judgment and in continuation of earlier order dt. 8.3.1983 in the Joginder Singh Sethi’s case, the reservation policy in the State came to a standstill.
Roster system: The meaning of the word “post” has been misinterpreted and it has been intermingled with the meaning of word ‘vacancy’. Actually, when the post is created, but when itis filled up, it is called vacancy. The posts are very small in number when these are created, but is are multiplied into vacancies when these are filled up. Accordingly, to remove discrimination between the word “post” and “vacancy”, the roster system has been prescribed. But after the judgment in the Joginder Singh Sethi’s case, the matter has been misinterpreted only to give maximum representation to non-SCs in appointments and promotions.
Demands: In the light of such blatant discriminations, our Association has placed the following demands 3 before the govt. 1. When the State govt. as well as the Centre are publicizing the stoical achievements of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Father of reservation policy, his actual – dream of uplifting the weaker sections through the reservations, which are nothing but our human rights, is being sabotaged by misinterpreting the factual provisions of reservation policy and judicial decisions by upper castes holding key posts in the administration. This blatant discrimination needs a thorough probe. 2. Such discrimination amounts io criminal atrocities on Untouchables and the State govt. will be directly held responsible for such racist policies. 3. SC/BCs in different cadres like Supt. grade |, Under Secretary, and Dy. Secretary, who have been superseded in promotions by junior nonSCs in their respective cadres, should be promoted retrospectively with effect from the dates their juniors were promoted. 4. The seniority list should be strictly followed in promotions. Smt. Joginder Kaur, a SC woman, Supt. Grade- ll, who is senior to non-SC men in the seniority list, has been superseded in promotion as Supt. Grade I. 5. The State should move the Supreme Court to re-clarify its order of # 10.12.90 bringing to its notice the complaints of the SCs regarding the misinterpretation of its order.
Chief Secretary order: Following the clarificatory order of the Supreme Court dt. 10.12.1990, the Chief Secretary to the Punjab Govt. has passed orders that SC promotions may not be made even on seniority cum merit in the cadres in which their representation is in excess or complete. But the cadre-wise position of reserved points given in promotion to the SC employees from 4-5-1974 to 26-12-1991 is as follows: – This proves that the SCs were not promoted on the seniority points in excess of their prescribed percentage of reservation. The reservation is on vacancies and not on posts. In fact, there is a big shortfall of reservation for SC employees in all the categories
