Secretary General
All India Income-tax SC/ST Employees Welfare Federation(ITSEWA)
Mumbai
Kindly find below my comments on writ petition filed by the Federation in the
Supreme Court for reservation in promotion in Class I.
My comments on other issues pertaining to reservation will follow in couple
of days.
Thanks,
Abhijeet Kumar N
***
At the outset, I would like to congratulate all the office bearers of
the Federation on being elected unopposed. Further, I sincerely hope and
believe that the federation would strive to justify the faith reposed in it by
the members and carry out its activities with utmost sincerity to achieve the
stated objectives / goals.
In your letter dtd.12/03/2008 at para.9, you have outlined the short
and long term objectives and also called for suggestions / comments vide
para.11 on the topics mentioned therein. Topic No.5 reads as
Writ petition filed by the Federation asking for reservation in
promotion in class I is pending in the Supreme Court.
The issue of reservation in promotion (hereinafter referred as RIP)
along with other issues pertaining to the reservation policy as a whole require
some serious deliberations and introspections to take a holistic approach so
that some policy proposals could be made to the government.
I have been hearing since my entry into the service in 1990, that one
or other employees organization filed writ petition in this or that court
pertaining to various issues of the RIP. I objected to this whole idea of RIP
then in 1993-94 and objecting to it even now after 14 years. It seems to me
that we are overstretching our scarce resources in pursuing the matters
pertaining to the reservation without much deliberation and without building
any consensus on them. In our zeal to do something for the society we land up
dealing with the peripherals i.e. treating the symptoms without diagnosing the
disease. Unless and until we strike at the root cause of the problems, all our
actions will be mere exercises in futility. Treatment of symptoms will give
temporary relief to be soon inflicted by other viruses.
Last two decades have seen a whole lot of writ petitions pertaining to
various issues of reservation which have been decided in favour or against the
petitioners / members / organizations. Broadly following type of writs/ cases
had been filed
(i) Cases / writs filed for RIP - Resulted into RIP up to the lowest level
of group A but not beyond i.e. up to the post of ACIT in the I.T. Department
and likewise.
(ii) Cases / writs against counting the reserved category candidates for
quota even though they competed with general candidates on their own merit
without any relaxation in standards. The apex court has decided the issue in
favour of the reserved category but the decision has not been implemented by
the UPSC / DOPT and PSCs of the states till date. Some OBC organizations have
filed writs in Madras High Court and got favourable judgment. However the
matter is still pending in the Supreme Court.
(iii) Writs/ cases filed against intra-class categorization in some states,
SC category was divided into sub-categories fixing quota within quota in
proportion to their population so that left out castes could also take benefits
of the reservation. For example Malas of Andra Pradesh went on pursuing the
issue up to SC and got favourable judgment. However, the issue is hardly
settled.
When we are coming across host of such cases / writs, I feel, it is
incumbent upon the federation to establish some kind of coordination with other
employees organizations through its local units and deliberate upon the
various aspects of reservation thread ware.
If we leave these numerous so-called all India organizations allegedly
representing the reserved category employees unchecked they will, under the
garb of protecting the interest of the employees, file numerous
petition-dealing with peripheral issues. Whereas, majority of us due to
apathy, merely become spectators. Not only this, we allow them to represent us
without our concurrence. This drama takes the nature of the famous epic story
of a nude emperor. Every spectator knowingly hailed the imaginary fabrics of
the emperor. It took the innocence of a child to call the bluff and point out
at the dangling genetalia. However, in our case, we dont even seem to have
that innocence to call a spade a spade.
During the all India ITSEWA seminar at Hyderabad, I elaborated on some
of the issues concerning reservation including the one mentioned in your
letter. I have seen nothing since then to persuade me that the members or
federation have really deliberated / debated the various issues and gained any
consensus on them. Unless the issue is debated and put before the house, I am
afraid; no useful purpose will be served. As far me, you can count on my
participation in any such debate anywhere in India at my own cost. I am of the
firm opinion that pursuing RIP for its illusionary benefits in a court of law
will hamper the interest of reserved employees tremendously even if the case is
decided in our favour. Presuming that the RIP is accepted, it will pose the
following problems -
(1) Administrative problem: RIP will have effect of promoting a junior officer
over a senior officer. How can a junior officer command respect from a senior
officer in the official hierarchy? It will be extremely difficult for an
officer to take orders from his junior officer. In a bureaucratic structure, a
leader is imposed and he commands respect from his unit member by virtue of his
experience which is a function of seniority. In a way seniority is treated as
the function of merit.
(2) Secondly, due to RIP, a whole new set of principles will emerge which
will legitimise the promotion of a junior officer over senior officer therefore
justifying the super-session. When a new principle will come into play, to
start with, it will bring some benefits but as it always happens, the new
techniques will be mastered and super-session will become the order of the day.
At present, we are competing for promotion batch-wise, but when RIP is
implemented, batch will lose its significance. It is not very hard to imagine
as to who will become the victims of this super-session.
(3) Thirdly, reserved officers on the verge of promotion will be deliberately
slapped with inquiries, vigilance proceedings, CBI, PIs, names in agreed list,
etc to debar them from the further career advancement. And I assure you,
nobody including federation, will come to any rescue of such victimized people.
If RIP becomes reality then we allow ourselves to become scapegoats for
super-session. We will be sacrificial lambs at the altar of promotion.
Without prejudice to above, honestly how many of us would allow our
juniors to control us. I am afraid not many will subscribe to this scheme of
things. If you do not buy this theory then your structure is build on the
loose sand likely to collapse at the first sight of a storm.
One may argue that if reservation is good as well as acceptable at
the time of entry then same is true for RIP.I am afraid, comparing reservation
at the entry level (REL) with RIP is similar to comparing apples with oranges.
REL is based on the following principles-
(i) Indian society is historically based on castes which are arranged
vertically. This graded inequality is the root cause of discrimination.
Therefore, to correct the historically wrongs, reservation was provided as
policy intervention to mitigate the impact of social discrimination.
(ii) Reservation is a democratic principle to provide representation to the
castes hitherto remained unrepresented in the governance of the country.
(iii) Morally and ethically speaking-treating equals unequally and unequals
equally will always result into inequality. Therefore, to bring in a semblance
of equality in the society, concept of positive discrimination through
reservation was brought in.
Having come into Govt. Service through reservation, principles of
social & educational backwardness, non-representation, inequality,etc. can not
be used for career advancement. The REL is a policy intervention aimed at
breaking the social barriers so that downtrodden section of society joins the
mainstream, whereas the RIP will act as barrier in the process of social
assimilation. Remember, no one has ever climbed up and held on to summit by
taking help of any policy intervention. He did it by defeating all his rivals.
The reservation is perfectly legitimate policy intervention for providing a
jump start and thereby affording an opportunity to reserved candidates to come
in the service on relaxed standards. However, using reservation for promotion
is bereft of any of the principles cited above.
Coming back to the basic question as to why do you require RIP or
alternatively are there any compelling reasons for getting RIP in place? Has
anyone come across any deliberate policy to debar reserved category candidates
from the promotion or non-representation of reserved category at the higher
level is the result of something else? As far as I know, quota is more or less
filled in group A & B posts. Similarly, the selected officers are also promoted
along with their respective batches. In our department, we are represented
quite well up to the post of CIT. However one rarely finds any CCIT from
reserved category. If non-representation at CCIT onwards posts is what the
Federation is worried about then we should spend our energy to find out the
cause and remedy of the same.
Summarising the issue
It is not our case where any of the members has denied promotion on
filmy grounds or reserved category has been kept out of the promotion under
some deliberate policy. We have also not made out a case wherein the reserved
category is discriminated against.
Since, quota is filled at the entry-level and all the selected candidates get
time-scale promotions on time without any perceived discrimination and the RIP
is also followed up to the lowest post in group A i.e. up to ACIT but not
beyond then why the quota figures for group A & B posts are less than the
prescribed limits. It is never 15% in the case of SCs but between 12 to 13%.
Same is the case with the STs. Why it is so?
Take any batch and find out the average age of a general officer and reserved
officer. One will find that average age of a reserved officer is invariably 4
years (approx.) more than that of the general officer. These reserved officers
will retire earlier than their general category counterpart and leave the field
therefore quota figures will always be less than 15%. Since Sr. Officers of
reserved category have already retired, therefore, question of their promotion
does not arise. This is the precise reason that we are not represented at
higher level such as Addl.Secy or Secy. This problem is not the result of any
policy but the malady crept in due to age relaxation at the entry level.
In a nutshell, age relaxation is the cause of this disease, therefore,
malady is to be treated by swallowing a bitter pill (removing age relaxation)
than by palliatives (RIP).
