The government is not bound to provide reservation for appointments and promotions to public posts, and courts cannot give directions compelling states to reserve jobs or positions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes , the Supreme Court has said in a judgment.

The top court also said that an individual does not have a fundamental right to claim reservation, and it is for the government to decide whether reservations are required in appointments and promotions.

The court, therefore, set aside an Uttarakhand high court ruling quashing a 2012 state government decision to fill up all posts in public services in the state without providing any reservations to SC/STs.

The court reaffirmed the law in this regard, holding that constitutional provisions contained in Article 16 regarding reservation are only enabling provisions, and it is up to the government to decide whether it should provide reservations in exercise of those powers under the Constitution.

The court held that the state, while deciding whether to provide reservation or not, can form its own opinion on the basis of the material it has in its possession already or it may gather such material through a commission, committee, person or authority.

However, the court also said that if the government wishes to exercise its discretion and make provisions for reservation for a class of people, it has to collect quantifiable data showing the inadequacy of representation of that class in public services. If the decision of the state government to provide reservations in promotion is challenged, the state concerned shall have to place before the court the requisite quantifiable data and satisfy the court that such reservations were necessary on account of inadequacy of representation.

Such data, the court said, needs to be collected only when the government is providing for reservation, and is not required when the state government has decided not to provide reservation.