Data on de-reservation proposals not readily available, says DoPT amidst tussle with Scheduled Castes panel

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said that it does not have “readily available” data on the number of de-reservation proposals it had received from various Ministries and departments of the Union government over the last six years. De-reservation is the practice of filling a reserved position with a general category candidate.

The DoPT clarification comes amid a recent complaint from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) that the Centre’s de-reservation proposals were often incomplete and didn’t reveal alternative efforts made to fill reserved vacancies. The NCSC had, therefore, decided to launch a probe into such proposals to ensure effective implementation of the reservation policy.

According to regulations for government recruitment issued by the DoPT, there is a general ban on the practice of de-reserving posts, with very specific exceptions.