- (1.) Leave granted in Special Leave Petitions.
(2.) The controversy pertaining to reservation in promotion for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with consequential seniority as engrafted under Articles 16(4A) and 16(4B) and the facet of relaxation grafted by way of a proviso to Article 335 of the Constitution of India being incorporated by the Constitution (Seventy-seventh Amendment) Act, 1995, the Constitution (Eightfirst Amendment) Act, 2000, the Constitution (Eighty-second Amendment) Act, 2000 and the Constitution (Eighty-fifth Amendment) Act, 2001 at various stages having withstood judicial scrutiny by the dictum in M. Nagaraj v. Union of India, 2006 8 SCC 212 , the issue of implementation of the same through existing statutory enactment by the State Legislature and the subsequent rules framed by the authorities of the State or concerned corporation of the State of Uttar Pradesh, has, as the learned counsel appearing for both sides in their astute and penetrating manner have pyramided the concept in its essentiality, either appeared too simple that simplification may envy or so complex that it could manifest as the reservoir of imbalances or a sanctuary of uncertainties. Thus, the net result commands for an endeavour for a detailed survey of the past and casts an obligation to dwell upon the controversy within the requisite parameters that are absolutely essential for adjudication of the lis emanated in praesenti. THE FACTUAL EXPOSE
(3.) Extraordinary and, in a way, perplexing though it may seem, yet as the factual scenario pronouncedly reveals, the assail in some of the appeals of this batch of appeals is to the judgment and order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Writ Petition No. 63217 of 2010 (Mukund Kumar Srivastava vs. State of U.P. and Another) upholding the validity of the provisions contained in Rule 8-A of the U.P. Government Servants Seniority Rules, 1991 (for brevity the 1991 Rules ) that were inserted by the U.P. Government Servants Seniority (3 rd Amendment) Rules, 2007 by the employees-appellants and in some of the appeals, the challenge by the State Government and the U.P. Power Corporation Ltd. (for short the Corporation ) is to the judgment and order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, Lucknow, in Writ Petition No. 1389 (S/B) of 2007 (Prem Kumar Singh and others v. State of U.P. and others) and other connected writ petitions holding, inter alia, that the decision rendered by the Division Bench in the case of Mukund Kumar Srivastava at Allahabad is per incuriam and not a binding precedent and further Section 3(7) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Servants (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 (for short the 1994 Act ) and Rule 8A of the 1991 Rules, as brought into force in 2007, are invalid, ultra vires and unconstitutional and, as a necessary corollary, the consequential orders relating to seniority passed by the State Government deserved to be quashed and, accordingly, quashed the same and further clarified that in case the State Government decides to provide reservation in promotion to any class or classes of posts in the services under the State, it is free to do so after undertaking the exercise as required under the constitutional provisions keeping in mind the law laid down by this Court in M. Nagraj . It has been directed that till it is done, no reservation in promotion on any post or classes of posts under the services of the State including the Corporation shall be made hence forth. However, the Division Bench observed that the promotions already made as per the provisions/Rules where the benefit of Rule 8A has not been given while making the promotion shall not be disturbed.;