New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled by a majority judgement of 6:1 that sub-classification within the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes (SC/STs) reservation is permissible.
A 7-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud overruled the earlier judgement by a five-judge bench in the EV Chinnaiah matter, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes.
Besides CJI Chandrachud, other judges on the bench were Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra, and Satish Chandra Sharma. Justice Bela M Trivedi, in a dissenting opinion, said that she disagreed with the majority judgement.
The Seven Judge Constitution Bench was dealing with issues relating to the sub-classification of reserved communities like SCs and STs.
CJI Chandrachud, while overruling judgement on Chinnaiah that held subclassification of the scheduled classes is impermissible, said that even at the lowest levels, the struggles with the class do not disappear with their representation.
Justice BR Gavai said there are categories within the SC/STs that have faced oppression for centuries and opined that the state must evolve a policy to identify the creamy layer among the SC/ST category.
Justice Trivedi, in a dissenting judgement, said that in the absence of executive and legislative power, the states do not have any competence to sub-classify the castes and sub-classify the benefits reserved for the entire Schedule Caste Justice Trivedi, in a dissenting judgement, said sub-classification by states would amount to tinkering with the Presidential notification under Article 341(2).
The Central Government had submitted before the Supreme Court that it is in favour of doing sub-classifications among Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
The Supreme Court was dealing with the constitutional validity of Section 4(5) of the Punjab Act, which depends upon whether any such classification can be made within the class of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes or whether they are to be treated as a homogenous class.
The Punjab Government had stipulated that fifty per cent of the vacancies of the quota reserved for Scheduled Castes in direct recruitment shall be offered to Balmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs, subject to their availability, by providing first preference from amongst the Scheduled Caste candidates.
On March 29, 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down the provisions, relying on the decision in E.V. Chinnaiah.
The appeal was filed in the top court against the High Court judgement. In August 2020, the top five-judge bench referred the matter to a larger bench.