By IANS,
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government Tuesday announced it would abide by the Supreme Court order to follow the state high court ruling staying reservation in promotions to all categories of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes government employees.
Even though the apex court’s order came in early March, Principal Secretary (Home) Fateh Bahadur held a press conference here Tuesday to issue clarifications that the state government was committed to abiding by the apex court’s order.
“These clarifications were necessary on account of certain demonstrations and agitations launched by some groups in a few parts of the state, whereby some misinformation was also being spread about the government’s intentions,” Bahadur said.
“We would also wish to make it clear that the state government does not believe in discrimination with any section of the employees,” he said, adding that the move to grant reservation in promotions was initiated under the provisions of the 85th Constitutional Amendment.
The Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to maintain status quo on an order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, which stayed the government’s move to grant reservation in promotions through an accelerated seniority.
The government’s move was challenged by general category employees, who contended that the revised reservation rules would completely deprive general category employees to rise beyond a limited level. They also argued that the new policy would result in giving the top slots in all government departments only to reserved category officials.