On the 3 March, 2020, the Government gave an order to implement ‘no work, no pay for employees’ participating in the Uttarakhand General-OBC Employees Association strike, in order to dissuade them from continuing their agitation. The chief secretary of state has further declared that any employee found to be taking leave without any valid reason will be considered to be involved in the strike, following which they will face the same consequences.
More than 1,65,000 employees have been on an indefinite strike since 2 March, demanding that there should be no reservation in promotions in the Government and that such promotions should be made on the basis of merit alone. Such reservations have been affecting work across government departments and the secretariat.
They are demanding that promotions be done immediately across departments in line with the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Early this February, the apex court issued a ruling by Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hemant Gupta that states are not bound to make reservations nor is it a fundamental right.
This came in the wake of an Uttarakhand High Court ruling which struck down the state government’s decision of 5 September, 2012, to fill up all posts in public services without providing reservations to SC/ST candidates.
The apex court also mandated that state governments can provide reservations to certain classes on their discretion, provided there is a strong reason based on data for providing reservation, such as definite under-representation of those specific classes in the public services.
In the meantime, work is likely to be affected for quite some time as a large number of government employees are participating in the indefinite strike.
