New Delhi: In a landmark ruling, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India on Thursday held that states could make laws by which some castes among the Scheduled Castes can be given preference over other SC castes in matters of public employment and admissions to government institutes.
The court held that such sub-classification was permissible and and did not violate the provisions of the constitution.
Reading out the judgment penned by him, the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud held that the Indira Sawhney judgement of 9 judges did not limit the idea of sub-classification only to Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBCs).
Reading out the judgement, Chief Justice of India Chandrachud said that when states embark on the exercise of sub-classification, it must be supported by emprirical data showing inter se backwardness of some castes within the Scheduled castes.
The court also said that such sub-classification of SCs cannot be done on political whims and action taken by states are subject to judicial review and state while framing any such law must show inadequacy of representation of some castes which must further be backed by data.
The judgment comes on a petition filed by the Punjab government which has challenged the decision of the Punjab and Haryana high court which had struck down The Punjab Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006 in 2010.
Under this act, the Punjab government had made an arrangement whereby fifty per cent of the vacancies of the Scheduled Caste quota were offered or reserved first for the Balmikis and Mazhbi Sikhs.
Now, when the Punjab government challenged the High Court judgment, two legal points were culled out for the court to decide. The first legal issue was, can sub-classification be permitted for the SC and ST categories since the same is permitted for the SEBC category? And if state legislatures competent to introduce sub-classification within the SC and ST categories?
Punjab government in the Supreme court has relied on a nine judge judgment in the Indira Sawhney case of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
As per the Indira Sawhney judgment sub classification was permitted for the Socially educationally backward classes and it cannot be disallowed for the Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribe categories.
Punjab government also argued that preferential treatment was a facet of the right to equality. Sub-classification, as introduced by the Punjab government, was permitted by article 16 and furthered the cause of adequate representation.
The matter was heard by a of 7 judges comprising of the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma. The judges had reserved had reserved the verdict on the matter in Feburary this year.