Reservation In Promotions

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The Supreme Court has upheld the Allahabad high court’s verdict to quash provision of reservation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) officers and employees in promotions. During last one decade and more , almost all government departments , public sector banks and public sector undertaking in general have given benefits of promotion based on quota to SC/ST and OBC category to please their vote bank , to please a few castiest politicians denying the opportunity to those who possess better record of performance .

I would like to suggest government to continue quota on recruitment if it is unavoidable and warranted to fulfill their social welfare agenda but completely stop quota system in promotion to SC/ST/OBC because this dirty game adversely affects the morale of those employees who perform better , honestly and devotedly but rejected only because they belong to general caste category. In an organization if a person is promoted only because he or she belongs to Dalit category even if he or she is non performer, dishonest and corrupt in his action vitiate the atmosphere, adversely affects the work culture and demotivate those who use to work sincerely and think for the nation as a patriot .It will not be an exaggeration to say that such type of dirty politics has only given rise to cancer of corruption all over the country and resulted in mass disloyalty to nation and the organization the employee serves. Undoubtedly this dirty politics has tarnished the image of the country in international community too.

The only solution to deal with this grave problem arising out of Supreme Court verdict and consequent denial of quota in promotion is to give promotion strictly based on seniority. This system will have dual advantage. Firstly there will not any thrust from SC/ST/OBC section on implementation of quota system in promotion or on issue of ordinance to nullify the impact of Supreme Court verdict .Secondly corrupt top ranked officers will not get opportunity to sell promotion and to whimsically reject any employee in promotion process only because he or she is not flatterer.

Hitherto even corrupt officers used to be elevated to higher post if he or she has a backing of minister, or key politicians or powerful top officers.
Officers who had the blessings of Godfather used to get chance in interview and others used to be whimsically rejected by greedy members of Interview panel constituted for carrying out promotion processes in various offices and departments.

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And the most disheartening part of this story is that if officers who were unjustifiably rejected in promotion process by selecting committee used to approach courts for justice but unfortunately in our country such cases remain undecided for decades. In such case, one can say without any doubt that all government offices use courts to perpetuate their reign of injustice. An individual can spend a few thousand rupees to contest his case in High Court or Supreme Court but the defendant being an government office can spend crores of rupees to postpone judgment for an indefinite period. This is why thousands of staff related cases have been languishing in various courts for decades and as a result , an employee has to bear with injustice till his death or retirement.

Lastly but not the least if seniority based promotion is put into action , quantum of flattery and blind support to bosses will stop and people will make efforts to say yes only when the proposal is justified and without any bias and prejudice. People will dare raise their voice against injustice of their bosses. Whistle blower will be able to puncture the possible mischievous plan of corrupt officers and ministers without any fear of repercussion on his career.

If at all it is found that employees do not perform only because he or she is sure of seniority based promotion, government and every department may frame a suitable policy to punish suitably to non performers and remove them if their non performance persist for a longer period. Such punitive action of course should take place based on written record and adjudged by a team of at least five good officers. Of course there are some disadvantages in seniority based promotions but these disadvantages become insignificant when we ascertain the impact of practice of whimsical and arbitrary promotion of bad officers at the cost of good officers and when we assess the impact of system of flattery and bribery on work culture.