Supreme Court’s Decision On State Government’s Authority To Sub-Classify SC-ST Quotas: What You Need To Know
Supreme Court’s Decision on State Government’s Authority to Sub-Classify SC-ST Quotas: What You Need to Know.
Get insights into the Supreme Court’s decision on whether state governments can sub-categorize Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for reservation quotas.
Learn about the implications of the EV Chinnaiah judgment and the ongoing debate over quota within quota.
The state government has the right to give quota within the reservation in SC-ST. What did the Supreme Court say?
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on the legal question of whether the state government has the right to sub-classify castes into Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for reservation.
If we understand in simple words, is there a right to give quota within the quota? Has reserved its decision on this matter.
Demand for review of 2004 decision.
A seven-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud heard arguments from Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior advocate Kapil Sibal and senior advocates appearing for the states, in which it reviewed the EV Chinnaiah judgment.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the SC community, which had suffered centuries of exclusion, discrimination, and humiliation, represented a homogeneous class, which was incapable of being sub-categorized.
The bench, comprising Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Mishra, and Satish Chandra Mishra, is hearing 23 petitions filed by the Punjab government challenging the 2010 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case.
The Supreme Court is hearing the case ‘EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh’ in the context of revisiting a 2004 five-judge Constitution bench judgment which had held that SCs and STs are homogenous groups.
Therefore, the State cannot proceed with classification within SC and ST to give quota within quota to the more deprived and vulnerable castes within these groups.
The Chinnaiah judgment held that any sub-categorization of Scheduled Castes would be a violation of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
According to the 2004 decision, only Parliament, and not state legislatures, can exclude castes considered to be SCs from the President’s list under Article 341 of the Constitution.
