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New Delhi: In a historic decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court gave the constitutional power to the state governments to create sub-categories to give the benefit of reservation to the most backward castes in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Along with this, the Supreme Court has given consent to the states to create quotas within the quota for the upliftment of socially and educationally backward castes. Now the state assemblies can make laws to create sub-categories within SC-ST. However, the Supreme Court has directed the states to exclude Crimeans from this reservation. A seven-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud gave this verdict by a majority of 6:1. Single judge Bela Trivedi expressed a dissenting opinion in this bench.
A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the 2004 judgment of a five-judge Constitution Bench in the case of E V Chennai vs State of Andhra Pradesh. With this, the Supreme Court has upheld the validity of sub-categories for quota within quota in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and other states. The judgment said that sub-classification cannot be done under the SC-ST category, as it falls under the same category.
However, a bench of Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Mishra and Satish Chandra Sharma made it clear on Thursday that the states have the right to create quotas within reservation. However, Justice Bela Trivedi, dissenting, said in an 85-page judgment that only the central government can include or exclude any caste in the Scheduled Tribes. No such power has been given to the states in the Constitution.
Chief Justice Chandrachud, in his 140-page judgment, said that the state government has the right to create sub-categories for reservation within SC-ST reservation by identifying socially and educationally backward classes under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. Quota within quota is not contrary to merit. People coming from SC-ST category are not able to move ahead due to discrimination in most systems. The sub-category does not violate the principle of equality under Article 14 of the Constitution. However, states cannot decide sub-categories within SC-ST at their own will or on the basis of political expediency and their decisions are subject to judicial review.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the indigenous and needy castes of the society will get more benefit of reservation in sub-categories. The government should have data to include tribes in reservation under sub-categories. This data should be based on actual survey. If the state government decides to give 100% reservation to any caste under sub-category, it will be tantamount to manipulation.
Justice BR Gavai, in a separate 281-page judgment, agreed with the Chief Justice and said that it is the duty of the states to give priority to the more backward classes. Only a few castes in the SC-ST category are taking advantage of reservation. The fact cannot be denied that some castes in the SC-ST category have been victims of exploitation for centuries. The purpose of reservation is to provide opportunities to socially and educationally backward classes, but some groups within the larger group always take advantage, and other classes are left neglected. States should bring a policy to identify the creamy layer among the SC-ST categories before providing sub-categories. The government should prevent the creamy layer from taking advantage of reservation.
Justice Vikram Nath said that the principle of creamy layer applies to SC-ST in the same way as it applies to OBC. In the hearing of this case, the central government strongly supported reservation for the Dalit class in the country. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, there were 1,263 Scheduled Castes in the country in 2018-19.
How will quota be given within quota?
Reservation is provided in educational institutions and government jobs for socially and educationally backward Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. However, with the Supreme Court order on Thursday, there will be quota within reservation, as per the existing system, 15 per cent reservation is given to Scheduled Castes, 7.5 per cent to Scheduled Tribes and 27 per cent to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10 per cent to economically backward classes. Now after the Supreme Court's decision, reservation will be given to the most backward and needy castes of Scheduled Castes by creating a sub-category within the 15% reservation of Scheduled Castes. That is, it will be ensured that even among the backward and needy classes getting the benefit of reservation, the neglected castes will get the benefit of reservation under the sub-category.