The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Chandigarh, has quashed fresh draft promotion panels prepared by the Income Tax department after holding that the department had not followed the safeguards laid down by the Supreme Court for providing reservation in promotions to scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) employees.
The applicants argued that the department had started applying reservation in promotions without first carrying out the exercises required by the Supreme Court, including determining whether reservation was justified on the basis of inadequate representation and addressing the creamy-layer principle. A reservation roster committee had been constituted to collect cadre-wise data and prepare rosters. The tribunal, however, found that the department had not complied with the legal requirements laid down by the Supreme Court in M Nagaraj, Jarnail Singh-I, Jarnail Singh-II, State of Punjab vs Devinder Singh and Kawaljeet Singh. The bench also rejected the department’s reliance on DoPT instructions and administrative decisions where they were inconsistent with binding Supreme Court judgments. It made clear, however, that the Income Tax department could undertake the promotion exercise again after full and strict compliance with the legal requirements laid down by the Supreme Court. The parties were directed to bear their own costs.
The department defended the exercise, saying it was acting on the basis of the Supreme Court’s January 2022 judgment in Jarnail Singh-II and the department of personnel and training’s (DoPT) April 12, 2022 instructions. The committee submitted its report in December 2025 and draft panels were circulated on January 5, 2026, according to the department. A fresh exercise followed, with revised rosters and draft panels submitted in February before the March 17 panels were circulated. It consequently quashed the March 17 draft panels and related orders. The tribunal noted that the department had itself earlier proposed approaching the Punjab and Haryana high court for permission to implement the April 12, 2022 instructions, subject to the Supreme Court’s decision. It later changed its position following a meeting involving departmental officials and the additional solicitor general and proceeded with revised panels in January 2026. The CAT allowed the three applications and set aside the March 17 panels.
However, after employees raised objections, particularly over the issue of “own merit” pending before the Supreme Court, the department withdrew those panels and ordered the rosters to be re-examined.
Those panels were subsequently withdrawn after objections from general-category candidates, before the exercise was started again.
