77th Constitutional Amendment Act 1995
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 9 "Constitution as a Living Document"
Meaning
The 77th Constitutional Amendment Act 1995 inserted Article 16(4A). It allows the state to reserve posts in promotions for SCs and STs. It was passed because Indra Sawhney (1992) had barred reservation in promotions. Article 16(4A) is an enabling power, so the state may use it but does not have to.
Example
After the amendment, courts made the catch-up rule. Under it, a general-category employee promoted later gets back seniority over an SC/ST employee promoted earlier. The 85th Amendment (2001, effective 17 June 1995) overrode this rule with consequential seniority: SC/ST employees keep the seniority they gain through reserved promotions. M. Nagaraj (2006) upheld both amendments but asked for quantifiable data.
Don't confuse with
- 85th Amendment (2001): it did not create promotion quotas. It only added consequential seniority to Article 16(4A).
Related concepts
- Reservation in promotion
- Catch-up rule
- Consequential seniority
- 82nd Constitutional Amendment Act 2000
- Claims of SCs and STs to services
- M. Nagaraj case
- Jarnail Singh case
- E.V. Chinnaiah case
- Davinder Singh case
- Sub-classification of Scheduled Castes