SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
In the early years after Jharkhand was carved out as a separate state, a quiet unease settled into government corridors. It did not announce itself loudly. There were no protests, no placards. Instead, it appeared slowly—in seniority lists pinned to notice boards, in promotion orders read twice in disbelief, in conversations held behind closed doors.
Engineers, administrators, and officers who had joined service decades earlier discovered that their names were slipping downward. Juniors had overtaken them. Careers built patiently over years of service suddenly seemed unsettled, as if the ground beneath them had shifted without warning.
What began as personal discomfort gradually turned into something more determined. Officers began to ask questions—not only about their own futures, but about the rules that governed them. That questioning, over time, took the shape of legal resistance.
A constitutional moment arrives
That resistance reached its constitutional moment on March 6, 2024, when the Jharkhand High Court delivered its judgment in Raghubansh Prasad Singh & Others vs State of Jharkhand & Others, the lead case in a large batch of writ petitions including W.P.(S) No. 5882 of 2003 and analogous cases.
The judgment was authored by Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, the Acting Chief Justice, speaking for a Division Bench that also included Justice Navneet Kumar.
A question older than the State itself
At the heart of the case lay a question that has troubled Indian constitutional law for decades:
How does a State pursue social justice without unsettling the promise of equality?
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The petitioners were mostly senior government officers who had entered service in the erstwhile State of Bihar long before Jharkhand came into existence in 2000. After bifurcation, they were allotted to the Jharkhand cadre and continued their careers under the new State.
For some years, the system worked as expected. Then came the change that altered everything.
When a constitutional amendment reshaped careers
In 2001, Parliament enacted the Eighty-Fifth Constitutional Amendment, allowing states to grant reservation in promotions with consequential seniority to members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Jharkhand adopted this provision through a government resolution dated March 31, 2003.
On paper, the change appeared procedural. In practice, it was transformative. Officers junior in age, experience, and sometimes qualification, moved ahead. Seniority lists were redrawn. Promotion ladders were rearranged. What had once been a gradual advancement became a sudden displacement.
What was challenged—and what was not
The officers who approached the court were careful in framing their challenge. They did not oppose reservation as a principle, nor did they question the Constitution itself.
By the time their cases were heard, the Supreme Court had already upheld the constitutional validity of the Eighty-Fifth Amendment in M. Nagaraj vs Union of India.
Their grievance lay in the manner of implementation. They argued that Jharkhand had applied reservation in promotion without examining whether the constitutional conditions were met—without data, without assessment, and without reflection on administrative efficiency.
The Supreme Court’s guiding framework
Justice Chandrashekhar’s judgment placed the controversy within a larger legal journey shaped by the Supreme Court. Decisions such as M. Nagaraj, Jarnail Singh, and B.K. Pavitra had repeatedly clarified that reservation in promotion is an enabling power, not an obligation.
The message from the apex court was consistent: reservation may be granted, but only after careful study and justification.
Where Jharkhand fell short
When the High Court examined Jharkhand’s 2003 resolution, it found a striking absence of guidance. There was no cadre-wise data, no evaluation of under-representation, no assessment of administrative impact, and no clarity on the extent of reservation.
The State, the court observed, had adopted constitutional language without adopting constitutional discipline.
Even policies aimed at social justice, Justice Chandrashekhar noted, must withstand the test of equality.
A court mindful of time and consequence
Yet the court was acutely aware of reality. By 2024, more than twenty years had passed since the resolution came into force. Promotions had been granted, officers had retired, and administrative structures had adjusted.
Undoing the past would risk creating fresh injustice.
The court therefore chose restraint.
Drawing a line between past and future
The Division Bench declined to disturb promotions and seniority already granted. At the same time, it made clear that the 2003 resolution would not be applicable in the future.
Until the State frames proper rules, collects quantifiable data, and follows Supreme Court guidelines, the resolution remains frozen—part of history, but inactive in law.
A judgment with a wider constitutional voice
Seen beyond service law, the judgment speaks to how power must be exercised in a constitutional democracy. It reminds governments that good intentions cannot replace evidence, and that equality deepens when inclusion is reasoned rather than rushed.
For a non-lawyer, the lesson is simple yet profound: justice is not achieved through shortcuts, even when the cause is noble.
The judgment stands as a reminder that constitutional equality is not an obstacle to social justice—it is its foundation.
