HC drops proceedings as Meghalaya adopts roster system for implementing reservation

The court had earlier told the government that the roster system is relevant only for entry-level posts, unless reservation is also provided for promotions.

The Meghalaya High Court dropped the suo motu proceedings against the state government on Wednesday after it was informed that a roster system was adopted for the implementation of the reservation policy.

The high court had stayed all government appointments in view of the absence of the roster system, and directed the state government on April 20 to introduce it within three weeks.

''The State has adopted the roster system for implementing the reservation policy which has been in vogue since almost the inception of the State for the last half a century,'' Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said in the order.

''Since the roster system is now in place, and without going into the merits thereof, the sou motu proceedings are dropped,'' the division bench, headed by Justice Banerjee, said.

The court, however, said the restriction will continue till the previous occupants in the relevant posts have been identified, whereupon the injunction will cease to operate.

The court observed that all future recruitment must be made only upon ascertaining the vacant slots that need to be filled up.

''It is made clear that the validity of the roster system has not been gone into. It is also clarified that the gradation list in every post will have no nexus with the roster system as the gradation list will be governed by the merit positions occupied by the persons collectively recruited,'' the bench said.

The roster system was adopted by the state government in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

During the hearing, the state advocate general handed over a copy of the order by which the roster system has been adopted in the state.

In the roster, persons with disabilities would also be accommodated. The court had earlier told the government that the roster system is relevant only for entry-level posts, unless reservation is also provided for promotions. ''Further, to ascertain what categories of persons would be next recruited, it is necessary to formulate a roster and apply the roster to all entry-level posts since the time the reservation policy came into effect, including cadres that were born after the reservation policy came into effect,'' it had said.

''Upon ascertaining the position in respect of each entry-level post, will it be possible to assess how the discrepancies, if any, may be addressed by inviting more applications in future recruitments from categories which have been under-represented so that at a given point of time there is no further discrepancy,'' the court had observed.

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