Jarnail Singh v. Lachhmi Narain Gupta
- Aditi Sahu, Chirst University Bangalore
- January 10, 2021
Content :
The Jarnail Singh V. Lachhmi Narain Gupta case is also known as the ‘Reservation in Promotion Case’. It was decided by a constitutional bench comprising of the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice SK Kaul, Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice RF Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra. It was formed to review the constitutional validity of the judgment given in M. Nagaraj V. Union of India given in 2006. The bench was supposed to check its validity with reference to Article 16(4) of the Constitution, which talks about providing reservations in government jobs to those belonging to the backward communities of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. In the M. Nagaraj case, it was held that to provide reservations, the state needs to collect quantifiable data regarding the backwardness of the community. It implied that the states need to prove the backwardness of a community before providing reservations in promotions. Moreover, the state needed to prove that the reservation would increase administrative efficiency too. Many states detested this move as it made it harder for them to provide reservations in promotions. It was also contrary to the judgment given in Indra Sawhney versus Union of India in 1992. The petitioner believed that a seven judge bench needs to review the judgment and make necessary changes so that the verdict is constitutionally valid. However the matter was reviewed by a five judge bench instead. The exclusion of creamy layer from reservations was also tackled in this judgment. After the petition in 2011, the judgment was given on 26 September 2018.
