The Supreme Court
on Tuesday commenced examining a legal question whether a state government is
empowered to make a sub-classification in the scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes for grant of reservation in admissions and public jobs.
A seven-judge
Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is also examining the
validity of the Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in
Services) Act, 2006 which provided 50 percent quota and the first preference'
to Valmikis' and Mazhabi Sikhs' castes in public jobs inside the quota meant
for the Scheduled Castes (SCs).
The bench, also
comprising justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj
Misra and Satish Chandra Mishra, is hearing 23 petitions, including the lead
one filed by the Punjab Government challenging the 2010 verdict of the Punjab
and Haryana High Court.
The high court
had struck down Section 4(5) of the Punjab law, which gave 50 per cent SC quota
to Valmikis' and Mazhabi Sikhs', as unconstitutional on grounds, including that
the provision violated a five-judge Constitution bench judgement of 2004 of the
Supreme Court in the case of EV Chinnaiah vs. State of Andhra Pradesh.
The Chinnaiah
judgement had held that any sub-classification' of the Scheduled Castes would
violate Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
The 2004 verdict
had stated that only Parliament, and not state legislatures, can exclude castes
deemed to be SC from the Presidential List under Article 341 of the
Constitution.
The Punjab
government, in 2011, had come to the top court assailing the high court's
verdict, saying the apex court's 2004 judgement was not applicable to it.
Taking up the
plea of the Punjab government, a five-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra
(since retired), on August 27, 2020, differed with the Chinnaiah judgement and
referred it for adjudication by a larger bench of seven judges or more for an
authoritative pronouncement.
We endorse the
opinion of a bench of three judges that EV Chinnaiah is required to be
revisited by a larger bench; more so, in view of further development and the
amendment of the Constitution, which have taken place.
We cannot revisit
E V Chinnaiah being bench of coordinate strength. We request the Hon'ble Chief
Justice to place the matters before a bench comprising seven judges or more as
considered appropriate, the bench had said while referring the case to a larger
bench.
In
central-government funded higher education institutions, 22.5 percent of
available seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and 7.5 percent for Scheduled
Tribe (ST) students.
The same
yardstick is applied in the case of public employments as well.
In states like
Punjab and Haryana, there is no ST population.