Supreme Court refuses to refer to 7-judge bench its 2006 decision on SC/ST job promotion

New Delhi, Sep 26 The Supreme Court on Wednesday refuses to review the 2006 order on SC/ST quota in promotions and said that the issue won't be alluded to a 7-judge seat. The five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that the 2006 Judgement referred to as the Nagaraj case, stands the backwardness test.

The court also cleared up that there is no need to collect quantifiable data of backwardness of SC/STs to provide reservation in promotions. In the 2006 judgement, the SC had held that it isn't required to make reservations for promotion in jobs for SC/ST members.

The apex court was giving the verdict on Centre's plea seeking reconsideration of the 2006 judgement laying down the criteria for reservation in advancement for SC/ST employees.

The top court by its 2006 judgement had stated: "...state should appear for each case the existence of compelling reasons, in particular backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency, before making provision for reservation in promotion."

The October 19, 2006 judgement was articulated by a five-judge constitution bench involving Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, K.G. Balakrishnan, S.H. Kapadia, C.K. Thakker and P.K. Balasubramanyan.

Making it clear that the concept of rich layer inside the SC/ST isn't the issue, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indu Malhotra had before stated: "There may be people (inside SC/ST) who may have overcome the stigma, but the community continues to face the stigma."