Rajya Sabha Passes Constitutional Amendment Bill

The Government of
India has always been
concerned about the
welfare of
downtrodden
especially Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled
Tribes. As a part of
the affirmative action,
reservation in
promotion had been
available to the SCs
and STs since 1955.
However, some
decisions of the
Supreme Court like in
Indra Sawhney, Veer
Pal Singh Chauhan
and S. Vinod Kumar
cases had caused
certain effects on the
scheme of reservation
in promotion for SCs
and STs. To overcome
these effects, the
Government had
brought four
Constitutional
amendments, namely,
77th, 81st , 82nd and
85th amendments.
The latest of such
judgments was in M.
Nagaraj case in which
the Supreme Court
has laid down some
pre-requisite
conditions for
providing reservation
in promotion. These
conditions are,
namely, assessing the
quantum of
representation of SCs,
STs, there
backwardness and
effect on efficiency.
In wake of the effects
of the judgment of
Supreme Court the
Government had
introduced a
Constitutional
Amendment Bill in
Rajya Sabha during
the last session so
that the Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled
Tribes may continue
to get reservation in
promotion as existing.
There had been
demand to retain
Article 335.
Accordingly, the Bill
was amended to
delete the words “ or
in Article 335”, so
that the condition of
the efficiency as
mentioned in the
Article 335 should
continue to be a part
of the Constitution
and should not be
obliterated. Moreover,
it ensures that the
effects of proviso to
article 335 are
retained which
permits relaxed
standards for
candidates belonging
to the scheduled
castes and the
scheduled tribes in
case of promotion
against reserved
vacancies.