Catch-up rule
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The catch-up rule is a rule made by courts for seniority in promotions. Suppose a reserved-category employee is promoted early through reservation, and a general-category employee from the same grade is promoted later. When the general-category employee "catches up", they get back their seniority over the reserved-category employee. The Supreme Court built this rule after Indra Sawhney (1992). Its effect was to limit the benefit of quick reserved promotions.
Example
The courts laid down the rule in Virpal Singh Chauhan (1995) and Ajit Singh I (1996) and II (1999). Parliament then passed the 85th Amendment (2001, effective from 17 June 1995). It overrode the rule by giving SCs and STs consequential seniority.
Don't confuse with
- Consequential seniority: this is the opposite rule. SC and ST employees keep the seniority they gained through a reserved promotion.
Related concepts
- Reservation in promotion
- 77th Constitutional Amendment Act 1995
- 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