Lateral entry in civil services

Context:

Two days ago, the Union Public Service Commission invited applications for the recruitment of “specialists”, including from private sector, to 45 posts through lateral entry scheme.

But this has been withdrawn as the government moved to cancel the recruitments, citing absence of reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

What is a Lateral Entry Scheme?

Lateral entry refers to the process of appointing individuals from outside the government directly to mid-level and senior positions.

It aims to bring in domain-specific expertise and fresh perspectives to enhance governance.

These 'lateral entrants' are appointed on contracts for 3 years, which can be extended to a maximum of 5 years.

Origin and Implementation:

The concept of lateral entry was first introduced under the 2004-09 and was strongly endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) established in 2005.

Itwas later recommended by NITI Aayog in 2017 to bring in expertise and fresh perspectives

In 2017, NITI Aayog, in its 3-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) on Governance recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government.

Process of Lateral Entry-Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) advertises vacancies for lateral entry. Applications are invited for lateral entry against these advertised posts. After a selection process instituted by the UPSC, individuals are recommended for appointment.

63 appointments have been made through lateral entry in the last five years by the government.

• Reservation in Lateral Entry:
• Lateral entries have beenexcluded from the reservation systembecause of the"13-point roster" policy.

The "13-point roster" policy establishes a method for determining a candidate's placement on a list of job openings by calculating their group's quota percentage (SC, ST, OBC, and EWS) as a fraction of one hundred.

• Since each lateral entry position is considered a"Single Post,"thereservation system does not apply, allowing these appointments to be made without following reservation guidelines
• In the current round of recruitment,45 openings have been advertised separately for each department.If considered as a single group, reservations would apply with specific allocations for SC, ST, OBC, and EWS candidates

• However, since thevacancies are treated as individual posts,they bypass the reservation policy, effectively excluding reserved categories from these positions