‘Scheduled castes socially heterogenous class’: SC’s landmark verdict
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the nod to the sub-classification within Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories to provide reservation in jobs and education for the more marginalized among them, news agencies have reported.
A seven-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud passed the verdict by a 6:1 majority with Justice Bela Trivedi dissenting, and alongside issuing six separate judgments.
The verdict overrules a five-judge Constitution bench’s judgment in 2004 in the case of EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh.
The Centre had told the court during hearing today that it is in favour of sub-classification within the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories.
The Chief Justice pointed out a distinction between "sub-classification" and "sub-categorisation" and held that in order for the benefits to reach more backward groups, the states may have to sub-categorise reserved category communities.
"There are six opinions. mine is for Justice Manoj Misra and me. A majority of us has overruled EV Chinnaiah (verdict) and we hold sub-classification is permitted. Justice Bela trivedi has dissented," he was quoted as saying.
The Chief Justice said "The members of SC/ST categories are not often unable to climb up the ladder due to the systemic discrimination they face. Article 14 permits sub-classification of caste,", adding, "Historical and empirical evidence demonstrates that the Scheduled Castes are a socially heterogenous class."
Making his stand clear, Justice BR Gavai said, "I have referred to a speech of Dr BR Ambedkar in 1949 where he said that unless we have social democracy there is no use of political democracy."
Justice BR Gavai added that the hardships and backwardness that some of the Scheduled Castes suffered are different for each caste, adding that ‘EV Chinnaiah was wrongly decided. It was argued that a party can give reservation to a sub-caste to gain political mileage, but I do not agree with this. The ultimate objective would be to realise real equality.’