New Delhi: A constitution bench of the Supreme Court has held that sub-classification of the Scheduled Castes is permissible for the purpose of granting separate quotas for those who are more backwards among communities in the list.
A seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said that six judges concurred and Justice Bela Trivedi dissented. Others on the bench were Justices B.R. Gavai, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma.
The judgement overturns the 2005 E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh judgement in which the court had held that all Scheduled Caste groups under Article 341 were one homogenous group. Article 341 authorises the President to declare certain castes and classes as Scheduled Castes.
LiveLaw has reported that the bench also considered the aspect of whether sub-classification with the reserved castes be allowed. The CJI, in his judgement, noted that it does not violate Articles 14 (enshrining the principle of equality) and 341 of the constitution.
“There is nothing in Articles 15 and 16 which prevents the state from sub-classifying a caste,” the CJI also said.
The matter was referred to the larger bench by a five-judge bench in 2020. This bench, too, had said that EV Chinniah did not correctly apply the decision of Indira Sawhney v. UOI.
LiveLaw’s report notes that the case began with questions on the validity of Section 4(5) of the Punjab Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006, which stipulated that 50% of SC-quota vacancies will be offered to Balmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs. In 2010, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down the provision, relying on EV Chinnaiah.
According to LiveLaw, the apex court also addressed the “creamy layer”. Notably, Justice Gavai said:
“Putting the children of the parents from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who on account of benefit of reservation have reached a high position and ceased to be socially, economically and educationally backward and the children of parents doing manual work in the villages in the same category would defeat the constitutional mandate.”
