Jaipur: Acting under the Supreme Court's instructions, the state government cleared the way for pending promotions of Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officers and thousands of government employees, on Monday.

The government had stalled the promotion process in December last year after the apex court upheld Rajasthan High Court's decision to quash its notifications for quota in promotions of government employees.

The government also withdrew the two notifications, dated December 28, 2002, and April 25, 2008. While, the notification of 2002 allowed benefit of reservation in promotion and consequential seniority to the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) employees, the 2008 notification discontinued 'catch-up' rule (Regaining) that allowed general and other backward classes (OBC) employees to reclaim their seniority over junior employees from reserved category who were promoted on quota seats. The matter is likely to come up for hearing in the High Court on Tuesday.

However, the general category and OBC employees are unhappy as the new notification issued by the department of personnel on Sunday maintained the policy of reservation in promotion and consequential seniority.

The new notification issued on Sunday says: "Reservation for SC/ST employees, with consequential seniority, shall continue till the roster points are exhausted and adequacy of promotion is achieved."

However, promotion quota will be capped at 16 percent for SC and 12 percent for ST.

In simple words, the SC and ST employees would not get promotion in excess of their allotted quota.