Balancing SC/ST Public Employment Claims with Administrative Efficiency
Official heading: “Claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to services and posts”
- Source edition
- The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2026)
- Source locator
- Part XVI, Article 335, printed pages 193–194
- Last human source-link check
- Not yet checked
- Last human legal review
- Not yet reviewed
AI-assisted source comparisons are noted with the citations below; the check date remains pending until a human confirms the link. The report link opens your email app; you choose whether to send it.
1. In One Sentence
Requires the claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to public service posts to be considered consistently with the maintenance of administrative efficiency.
2. What It Means in Everyday Language
Article 335 guides affirmative action in public employment, directing that claims of SC and ST members shall be taken into consideration in civil service appointments, consistently with maintaining efficiency of administration.
In early decisions such as S. Vinod Kumar (1996), courts interpreted "efficiency" as barring relaxation of qualifying exam marks in promotional evaluations.
To nullify those restrictive rulings, Parliament enacted the Constitution (Eighty-second Amendment) Act, 2000, adding a crucial proviso.
The proviso explicitly empowers the State to relax qualifying marks in examinations or lower evaluation standards for reservation in promotions to any public services or posts under the Union or States.
3. Practical Illustrative Example
A government department lowers the promotional examination cutoff score by 5% for SC and ST candidates to ensure adequate representation in supervisory engineering cadres.
4. Important Limits, Qualifications & Exceptions
Article 335 harmonizes affirmative action in public services with governance efficacy.
- Constitutional balance: Balances social justice representation with the overarching imperative of administrative efficacy.
- Eighty-second Amendment proviso: Authorizes the State to lower qualifying standards or benchmark marks in promotional examinations.
- Harmonized with Article 16: Works in tandem with Articles 16(4), 16(4A), and 16(4B) to support public employment quotas.
5. Operative Constitutional Text
6. Sources & Historical Assembly Deliberations
Assembly quotations are withheld until wording, dates, and attribution have been checked against the primary record.
- •Government of India (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice) • Part XVI, Article 335, printed pages 193–194 • Human source-link check pending
Primary PDF accessed and transcribed with AI assistance on 14 October 2026. Formatting and amendment annotation markers are omitted; operative wording is retained. This is not human legal review. Later amendments and commencement notifications have not been comprehensively checked.