In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Reservation Act 2018, which provides consequential seniority to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes government servants promoted on merit-based reservation. The Court held that the Act validly cured the defect in the earlier 2002 Act, which was struck down for lacking quantifiable data on inadequacy of representation and administrative efficiency. Following the earlier judgment, the state properly conducted the Ratna Prabha Committee exercise to collect relevant data. The legislature has constitutional power to enact curative legislation with retrospective effect to remedy judicially identified defects without usurping judicial authority. The concept of creamy layer does not apply to consequential seniority in promotion. The Court emphasized that the Constitution mandates substantive, not merely formal, equality, and that diverse representation in administration is itself a constitutional value consistent with maintaining administrative efficiency. The Governor's referral of the Bill to the President was constitutionally valid and non-justiciable. All petitions challenging the Act were dismissed."
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