Siddaramaiah terms SC's order on quota in promotions as 'dangerous'

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Feb 10 (ANI): Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday termed the Supreme Court's decision that reservation in promotions for government jobs is not a fundamental right as "dangerous" and said that it was against the basic structure of the Constitution.
The decision of the apex court was made in connection with a case concerning the then Congress-ruled Uttarakhand government in 2012.
"Supreme Court in its judgment has interpreted that reservation and reservation in promotions to SC/ST is not a fundamental right not obligatory on the state governments. This interpretation is very dangerous and against the basic structure of the Constitution," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader said, "Article 16 is under Part III of the Constitution - Fundamental Rights. Fundamental rights are enforceable in the court of law. Now with the court terming reservation issues as not enforceable is against the basic doctrine."
"The judgement is against the principles of equality and social justice. Social reality is ignored while interpreting fundamental rights. Article 16 is enforceable and obligatory on the states. Article 16(4),16(4)(a), 16(4)(b) says nothing shall prevent State from providing the reservations," he said.
"Discrimination and injustice dates back to many centuries. Affirmative actions and special treatments are necessary to narrow and eliminate the inequalities in terms of income, education, social relations, etc. Many progressive countries across the World provide such measures," Siddaramaiah added.
The Congress leader further said, "With the discretion left to the states, we have no confidence on the BJP governments that they will implement special treatments in their states. It is in their ideology to eliminate all such measures. RSS leaders openly speak about reviewing it. This judgement has helped them."
He said that the central government's lawyers failed to convince the court about the basic structure of the Constitution and to highlight the significance of Article 16, 16(4)(a), 16(4)(b) to the Supreme Court.
"This seems to be the conspiracy of BJP," he said in another tweet.
The Congress leaders alleged that while on one side the government is trying to "privatise everything" and on the other side it is "using Supreme Court judgements to remove reservations".
He said the Union government must intervene at the earliest by filing a review petition.
Siddaramaiah said the Congress will launch a nationwide protest if BJP fails to address the concern. (ANI)