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Mukesh Kumar & Anr. v. The State of Uttarakhand & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 153Decided 7 Feb 2020
Civil Appeal No. 1226 of 2020
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

This batch of appeals concerned whether the Uttarakhand Government was obliged to provide reservation in promotions to Assistant Engineer posts for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. After earlier litigation struck down a state law provision on reservation in promotion, the State in 2012 decided to fill all promotional posts without reservation, even though a government-appointed committee had earlier found inadequate representation of these communities in public service. The Uttarakhand High Court struck down the State's "no reservation" decision and also directed the State to collect fresh quantifiable data on representation before deciding the issue, prompting appeals to the Supreme Court by both the State and some reserved-category employees.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reaffirmed settled law that Articles 16(4) and 16(4-A) of the Constitution are merely enabling provisions: they give the State discretion to provide reservation in promotions but do not create any fundamental right to such reservation, and courts cannot direct the State to provide it. It held that collecting quantifiable data on inadequate representation is required only if the State wants to justify providing reservation, not when it decides against providing reservation at all; since the Uttarakhand Government had made a conscious, considered decision not to provide reservation in promotions, the High Court erred in striking down that decision and in directing fresh data collection. The Court therefore set aside the High Court's judgments and the direction that all future promotional vacancies go only to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates, allowing the State's appeals.

Lesson Learnt

No citizen or employee has a fundamental right to reservation in promotion: it remains entirely within the State's discretion, and the government cannot be judicially compelled to provide or justify its decision not to provide such reservation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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