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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday 28 January pronounced that Cadre should be unit for collection for quantifiable data for reservation (with regard to reservation in Promotion). The collection of quantifiable data cannot be with respect to the entire class or group, but it should be relatable to Grade/Category of post to which promotion is sought, the apex court has said in its judgement adding Cadre should be the unit for collecting quantifiable data. It would be meaningless if collection of data is with regard to the entire service.

Nagaraj judgment of 2006 would have a prospective effect

A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and B.R.Gavai on Friday delivered the judgment in the issue relating to reservation in promotions.

The judgement comes after the Centre and States had urged the Supreme Court to resolve the matter regarding the norms for reservation in promotions. The Bench had reserved judgment on October 26, after hearing the matter following the reference answered in 2018 by a 5-judge bench in the Jarnail Singh v. Lachhmi Narain Gupta case.

Accoding to the operative part of the Judgement, which is awaited, the Court cannot lay down the yardstick to determine inadequacy of representation; State has to collect quantifiable data regarding adequacy of representation; Cadre should be unit for collection for quantifiable data for reservation; The collection cannot be with respect to the entire class or group, but it should be relatable to Grade and Category of post to which promotion is sought; Cadre should be the unit for collecting quantifiable data; it would be meaning less if collection of data is with respect to the entire service; Nagaraj judgment of 2006 would have a prospective effect; and the conclusion in BK Pavitra approving the collection of data on the basis of groups and not cadres is contrary to the dictum in Jamail Singh.

Justice Rao said: We have not expressed any opinion on the merits of individual cases. We have answered only the common issues formulated after hearing the parties. We are listing the matter on 24th Feb. We already have groups given by the Attorney General. Matters of some groups will come upon 24th Feb. We will list the Central Government matters first, we will take up the Contempt Petition against Home Secretary on that day”.