Reservation for Upper Castes in the Appointment of Assistant Engineers

• 11 Sep 2021

Why in News

• Recently, the Jharkhand High Court has ordered to continue the reservation by setting aside the order of the single bench to give 10% reservation to the upper castes in the appointment of assistant engineers.

Key Points

• The court of Justice R Mukhopadhyay and Justice Rajesh Shankar, while delivering the verdict on the appeal petition of the government, said that the time rule applies from the day the appointment process starts.
• The earlier vacancies are also filled under the new rule. The court upheld the decision of the government and directed JPSC to continue with the recruitment process.
• It is noteworthy that the court had reserved the judgment after the completion of the hearing on July 23.
• It is to be known that JPSC had released advertisements in 2019 for the recruitment of 634 posts of Assistant Engineers. Vacancies from the year 2015 to 2019 were included in this appointment and 10% reservation was being given to the upper castes.
• This order of the government was challenged in the single bench by Ranjit Kumar Singh and others. It was said that this appointment includes vacancies from 2015 to 2019. In such a situation, the benefit of ten percent reservation cannot be given to the upper castes, because the government has decided to give reservation to the upper castes in the year 2019.
• Significantly, on February 23, 2019 the government decided to give 10 percent reservation to the upper castes, on January 21, 2020 the single bench canceled the appointment process, then on March 6, the government appealed against the order of the single bench and on September 10, the division bench Judgment pronounced.