Chennai HC asks banks to have quota at officer level

 11 December 2009, 04:05am IST

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CHENNAI: Recommending representation for SC/ST officers
in the higher echelons of nationalised banks, the Madras
High Court has directed at least
five nationalised banks to follow the rule of reservation
for promotion of SC/ST candidates to officer ranks.

A division bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao
and Justice CT Selvam, citing a central government memo
dated August 13, 1997, said: "When the Constitution has
given an extra protection to the underprivileged communities
 so as to ensure equal opportunities as guaranteed by the
Constitution, the banks are not justified in sleeping over
the matter of providing reservations in promotions for a
decade with no good reason to offer."

The petitions and appeals were filed by the SC/ST employees
 associations of various nationalised banks, seeking a direction
 to the banks to provide reservation in promotions to officers
 from scale I to scale VII as per the instructions issued by the
 Centre.

The banks, however, said promotion to officer grade is on the
basis of merit-cum-seniority, to which reservation policy cannot
be made applicable. They claimed that reservation is applicable
only in the first instance where promotion is from the clerical
grade to the lowest rank in the officer grade.

The rule of reservation will not apply
even to the next scale of middle
 management level in scale II position, they said. They also
argued that the efficiency of administration of banks would
suffer if the reservation policy is followed.

Rejecting the arguments, Justice Dharma Rao, writing the judgment
for the bench, said: "We are unable to understand such a sweeping
 and generalised argument advanced on the part of the banks, as if
all the employees belonging to these underprivileged classes are
inefficient and not suitable for promotion.

When the Union of India has directed the
banks to follow the rule of reservation in promotions
in all cadres, as early as in the year 1997, there is no impediment for
 the banks to implement the same. However, for no better reason to be
appreciated, the banks are adamant in not implementing the office memo."

Citing the bleak picture of only a very few SC/ST officers occupying
high positions, the bench said, "this defeats the very purpose of
reservation enshrined in the Constitution. We must remember that even
 the SC/ST candidates, who are now serving in officer cadres, have
been promoted only by virtue of their long service and merit and not
by availing themselves of the rule of reservation in promotions, as
has been provided for under Article 16(4A) of the Constitution."

It then directed the banks to implement the rule of reservation
for promotions to all cadres in the  banking sector, within eight weeks.

Source:TOI