New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday refused to dilute the conditions for reservation in promotion for SC/ST employees and held that the collection of quantifiable data is mandatory apart from assessment of inadequacy of representation after periodic review.

A Bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao passed the judgement. The Apex Court had on Oct. 26 reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments and detailed submissions from the Centre and all the parties. The Court said a review period should be determined by the Union Government. “The State is obligated to collect quantifiable data before granting reservation in promotion to Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe (SC/ ST) employees. It cannot lay down new yardstick after the Constitution bench decision in Nagaraj (2006) and Jarnail Singh (2018),” the Court said.

“Cadre should be unit for collection for quantifiable data for reservation. The collection cannot be with respect to entire class/class/group, but it should be relatable to Grade/Category of post to which promotion is sought. Cadre should be the unit for collecting quantifiable data.”

Justice Rao said: “On the basis of arguments, we have divided the submission into six points. One is yardstick. In the light of Jarnail Singh and Nagaraj, we have said we cannot lay down any yardstick. With respect to the unit for collecting quantifiable data, we have said that the State is obligated to collect quantifiable data.”

He said: “We have not expressed any opinion on the merits of individual cases. We have answered only the common issues formulated after hearing the parties. We are listing the matter on Feb. 24.”