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When framers of the Constitution by Article 16 guaranteed equality of opportunity in mattes of public employment, they armed at combining democratization with efficiency. In the process of democratization Article 16(4) enabled the State to make provisions for reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State is not adequately represented in the services under the State. As has been pointed out by this Court that at the same time Article 335 of the Constitution enjoins to take into consideration the claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes "consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of the administration" while the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the union or of a State. Thus it has been conceived by our Constitution that a process should be adopted while making appointments through direct recruitment or promotion in which the merit is not ignored. For attracting meritorious and talented persons to the public services, a balance has to be struck, while making provisions for reservation in respect of a section of the society. This Court from time to time has been issuing directions to maintain that balance in the public services so that there should not be discontentment, heart-burning and frustration, which can never be held to be in the larger interest of the society. It has been pointed out in the case of Indra Sawhney (supra) that reservation in promotions at various stages has resulted in considerable discontentment because many senior persons inspite of their efficiency and dedicated work find themselves superseded by their juniors belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Tribes for that reason alone. In many cases seniors to their horror find themselves made junior to even those who actually worked as their subordinates due to this factor alone. All concerned who are involved and interested in the uplift and growth of the nation have to work out a system by which the injustice done to a section of people in our society at certain period of history can be rectified by providing protections to their descendants, but we have to be conscious, at the same time that the efficiency of the administration of the country is not harmed and there is no reverse discrimination. Promotion is an important incident of service. It covers both advancement between srades within the same class and between different classes. Seniority in service is one of the important factors in making promotion. Even where process of promotion by selection is adopted, seniority has an importance in case of equal merit. The principal object of a promotion system is to secure the best possible incumbents for the higher position while maintaining the morale of the whole organization. The best public interest is served when equal opportunities for promotion exists for all qualified employees. Civil servants are able to move up 'the promotion ladder' as the merit deserves and the vacancies occur. Right to equality enshrined in the Constitution is to be reserved by preventing reverse discrimination as well. The guarantee of equality requires maintenance of original or panel inter se seniority between the general category candidate and the earlier promoted reserved category candidate under the reservation policy, for promotion to the higher general vacancy. The equality principle requires exclusion of the factor of extra weightage of earlier promotion to a reserved category candidate because of reservation alone, when he competes for further promotion to a general category with a general category candidate, senior to him in the panel. Any other view would amount to reverse discrimination and violative of the guarantee of equality in Articles 14 to 16.