Master Circular No.51 : Part-II : Scope Of Reservation For SC/ST In Railway Services
Master Circular No.51 : Part-II : Scope Of Reservation For SC/ST In Railway Services
Orders of reservations were issued immediately on attainment of Independence on 21.9.1947 providing reservations of 12.5% of vacancies for Scheduled Castes in respect of recruitment made by open competition. In case of recruitment otherwise than by open competition, this percentage was fixed at 16-2/3%. After promulgation of the Constitution reservation was provided to the extent of 5% for Scheduled Tribes also. This reservation on 12.5% for Scheduled Castes and 5% for Scheduled Tribes was later on increased to 15% and 7.5% respectively from 25.03.1970.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)70 CM 15/10, 20.04.1970 & No.E(SCT) 15/14, 30.10.1977]
(a) The reservation policy has been reviewed from time to time, as a result of that reservation has been extended in promotions as under:—
| (i) | In recruitment | w.e.f. 26.01.1950 |
| (ii) | in promotion by selection and by Limited Departmental Competitive Examination | w.e.f. 04.01.1957 |
| (iii) | In promotion on seniority-cum-suitability basis in Group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. | w.e.f. 27.11.1972 |
| (iv) | In promotion by selection to Group ‘B’ and from Group ‘B’ to lowest rung to Group ‘A’. | w.e.f. 20.07.1974 |
[Authority: No.E 47 CM 1/49/3, 23.12.1950, No.E(SCT)57 CM 1/20, 27.04.1959 & 08.06.1961,
No.E(SCT)72 CM 15/5, 11.01.1973 & No.E(SCT)73 CM 15/13, 17.08. 1974]
(b) This reservation is also applicable in Ad-hoc Promotion Pending Selection/Test duration of which is for 45 days or more.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)68 CM 15/12, 10.12.1971 & 16.03.1974]
(c) The reservation of SC/STs is applicable to Selection and Non-Selection Posts, both in Safety and Non-Safety Posts filled by promotion to all grades or services, where the element of direct recruitment, if any, does not exceed 75% w.e.f. 25.04.1989. (Previously it was 66-2/3 % which has been changed in 1989). Similarly reservation is also applicable in up-gradation.
[Authority: RBE No.158/1989, No.89-E(SCT)I/25/21, 20.06.1989 & DOPT OM No.36012/17/88-Estt.(SCT), 25.04.1989]
(d) Reservation for SC/STs in promotion cannot be more than 50% of total assessed vacancies for promotion, except when single vacancy is treated as reserved for SC or ST.
[Authority: No. 82-E(SCT)39/2, 29.04.1982]
(e) Reservation is applicable in Non-Gazetted as well as Gazetted Posts, both in Safety as well as in Non-Safety Posts.
(f) Promotion under the best amongst the failed Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe employees is not applicable in ‘safety’ category and Limited Departmental Competitive Examination in Group ‘B’.
[Authority: No. E(SCT)74 CM 15/34, 19.06.1978]
(g) Recruitment is made through UPSC in Gazetted Posts, and in Group ‘C’ through RRBs and other agencies or locality by Railway Administration in Group ‘C’ & ‘D’ and there are some posts which are filled up partially by direct recruitment and partially by promotion. Therefore, different percentage may be applied in case of recruitment and for promotion and Rosters for both are to be opened separately.
(2) The present position in respect of percentage of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes through different modes of recruitment / promotion is as under:-
| Description |
Present Percenntage |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
SC |
ST |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (i) Direct recruitment on All India basis – Groups ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ [where minimum of scale is Rs. 1400 (RPS) and above]. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (a) By open competition i.e. through the UPSC or by means of open competitive test held by any other authority. |
15 |
7.5 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (b) Otherwise than at (a) above |
16-2/3 |
7.5 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
[Authority: No.E(SCT)70 CM 15/10, 20.04.1970 & No.E(SCT)15/14, 13.10.1977] |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(ii) Direct recruitment to Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ posts in grade less than Rs.1400 normally attracting candidates from a locality or a region, following reservation percentage has been prescribed as revised w.e.f. 01.06.1988:—
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (iii) For For the purpose of promotions, posts have been classified as “Selection Posts” and “Non-Selection Posts”. The promotions are made by
(a) Selections (or) (b) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (or) (c) Suitability test (or) (d) Seeing CRs/record of services (or) (e) Trade test in Artisan categories. In all promotions, the reservation is provided @ 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs on 40 Pt. Roster basis. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (iv) The Department of Personnel & Training in Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension is the Nodal Agency to issue directives on reservation policy for SC/STs to all the Ministries to implement the reservation for SC/STs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (v) Necessary instructions on policy matters for reservation of SC/STs are reiterated by Railway Board to the Zonal Railways / Production Units etc. for implementation.
[Authority: No.82-E(SCT)15/Misc./I, 20.03.1982] |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(3) Definition of SC/ST:
A person shall be considered to be a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, as the case may be, if he belongs to a Caste or a Tribe, which has been declared as a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe for the area of which he or she is a resident through an order under the Constitution.
(4) Verification of claims of belonging to Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe:-
Any of the following certificates may be accepted by the appointing authority as a sufficient proof in support of a candidate’s claim of belonging to Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe:—
(a) A certificate in the prescribed form issued by one of the authorities empowered to issue such a certificate.
(b) Matriculation certificate or the Birth Certificate giving the caste or community of the candidate and the place of his residence.
(A) List of authorities empowered to issue Caste Certificate:
(i) District Magistrate/ Additional District Magistrate / Collector / Deputy Commissioner / Additional Deputy Commissioner / Deputy Collector / I Class Stipendiary Magistrate / City Magistrate / Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Not below the rank of I Class Stipendiary Magistrate) / Taluka Magistrate / Executive Magistrate / Extra Assistant Commissioner.
(ii) Chief Presidency Magistrate / Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate / Presidency Magistrate.
(iii) Revenue Officer not below the rank of Tehsildar.
(iv) Sub-Divisional Officer of the area where the candidate and/or his family normally resides.
(v) Administrator/ Secretary to Administrator/ Development Officer (Lakshadweep Islands).
[Authority: RBE No.153/1985, No.84-E(SCT)31/2, 30.05.1985 &
RBE No.280/1985, No.85-E(SCT)I/74/1, 10.10.1985]
(B) Place of Residence / Birth:
The place of birth of a person is not the determining factor in deciding the place of residence. Birth places of even two brothers may differ and in such a case it is not justified to consider one as Scheduled Caste and deny the same treatment to the other. Therefore, the place of residence is to be determined with reference to the Place / State to which the forefather of the person belongs irrespective of the fact that the person or his / her parents might have gone to some other place temporarily in search of employment.
(C) Migration:
Where a person migrates from one State to another, he can belong to a Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe only in relation to the State to which he originally belonged and not in respect of the States to which he has migrated, notwithstanding the fact that the name of his caste / tribe has been scheduled in respect of that State in any Presidential Order.
(D) Marriage:
Marriage does not change the status of a Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe. In case a SC or ST lady marries a non-SC/ST man, then she will be eligible for SC/ST benefits but her husband or children will not be eligible for SC/ST benefits.
(E) Conversion and Re-conversion:
No person who professes a religion different from the Hindu, Sikh or Budhism religion can be deemed to be a member of SC. The rights of a person belonging to ST are, however independent of his / her religious faith. Cases of conversion and re-conversion are to be examined in the light of the following principles:
(i) Where a SC person gets converted to a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Budhism and then reconverts to Hinduism, Sikhism or Budhism, he will be deemed to have reverted to his original SC, if he is accepted by the members of that particular caste as one among them.
(ii) In the case of a descendant of a SC convert, the mere fact of conversion to Hinduism, Sikhism or Budhism will not be sufficient to entitle him to be regarded as member of the SC to which his forefathers belonged. It will have to he established that such a convert has been accepted by the members of the caste claimed as one among themselves and has thus become a member of that caste.
(F) Adoption:
In case of a legal adoption, the adoptive child, if adopted by SC/ST parents, acquires the status of a SC/ST.
(5) Reservation benefits are admissible to the SC candidates belonging to the Hindu, Sikh or Budhist. However, reservation benefits can be extended to Scheduled Tribes who may profess any religion and submit the certificate of Caste/Tribe which is included in the Presidential Order.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)78 LG 5/2, 16.01.1982, RBE No.72/1991, No.91-E(SCT)1/31/3, 18.04.1991 &
Ministry Of Programme Implementation OM No.6/10/90-BBE(SC/ST Cell), 18.02.1991, 31.07.1990, 20.11.1990]
Reservation benefits are admissible from the date of submission of Caste Certificate.
[Authority: No.83-E(SCT)31/6, 01.11.1983]
(6) Reservation benefits are given only to those SC/STs in promotion who are appearing against reserved quota vacancies.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)68 CM 15/10, 23.10.1969 and No.83-E(SCT)42/1, 14.04.1983]
(7) SC/ST candidates can be considered against reserved vacancies, and also against the unreserved vacancies if their turn fall as per the seniority list but for that they have to qualify with general standard like others.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)68 CM 15/10, 15.03.1973]
(8) If SC or ST candidate is lower in seniority and they do not come in the zone of consideration as per their seniority and there are reserved quota vacancies as well, then those SC/ST candidates who are, though junior in seniority list may also be considered for promotion from the extended zone of consideration against their reserved quota vacancies, for which various concessions and relaxations have been provided. But preference is to be given to those SC/ST candidates who are passing with general standard. SC/ST candidates passing with relaxed standard are considered only when requisite SC/STs are not passing with general standard and such SC/ST candidates shall be placed in panel below those SC/ST candidates passing with general standard.
[Authority: No.E(SCT)68 CM 15/10, 23.10.1969, No.83-E(SCT)42/1, 14.04.1983 and,
RBE No.97/1992, No.89-E(SCT)I/49/5 (Pt.), 16.06.1992]
(9) Based on the total number of sanctioned posts in the category / post, the reserved quota for SC/STs is to be arrived at by applying the percentages of 15 for SCs and 7.5 for STs. For this purpose, sanctioned posts shall be the number of posts actually being/to be operated and shall exclude the number of posts identified as surplus or due to any other reason. The backlog and deficiency in reserved quota shall be filled up through 50 Pt. Roster. Selected SC/ST candidates are to be adjusted against (i) backlog vacancies (ii) reserved quota vacancies. Excess, if any, in reserved quota is to be adjusted against future vacancies as per the Roster.
[Authority: RBE No.97/1992, No.89-E(SCT)I/49/5 (Pt.), 16.06.1992]
(10) Besides Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, there is Minority Community also, for which there is no reservation but members of that Minority Community are compulsorily nominated in Recruitment Committee / Screening Committee, in addition to a SC or ST member.
The Minority Community consists of:- Sikh / Muslim / Christian / Zoristrian / Neo-Budhist.
[Authority: No.83-E(SCT)87/3 dated 27.10.1983 & No.E(NG)II-83/RR1-7, 01.06.1983]
(11) SC/ST’s reservation benefits shall be permissible only to those SC/STs who are by birth belong to SC/ST, and not to those candidates who marry a SC or ST candidate.
[Authority: No.78-E(SCT)15/9, 19.05.1979]