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This is an archive article published on October 4, 2024

Supreme Court rejects pleas to review its SC quota order granting sub-classification

The Constitution bench on August 1 allowed sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for reservation to the less-privileged among them; it noted that there was inequality even within the SC community.

Justice Bela M Trivedi was the lone dissenter who, in her verdict, said Scheduled Castes constituted a homogeneous class and “cannot be tinkered with by the states”.Justice Bela M Trivedi was the lone dissenter who, in her verdict, said Scheduled Castes constituted a homogeneous class and “cannot be tinkered with by the states”. (File photo)

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petitions seeking review of its August 1 judgment allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for the purpose of providing reservation to the less-privileged among them.

“Having perused the review petitions, there is no error apparent on the face of the record. No case for review under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013 has been established. The review petitions are, therefore, dismissed”, a seven-judge Constitution bench said.

The bench presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also comprised Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra, and Satish Chandra Sharma.

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The August 1 ruling had by a 6:1 majority overruled the 2004 judgment in E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh that had held that Scheduled Castes constituted a homogeneous group and cannot be sub-categorised.

The majority of judges had said “empirical evidence indicates that there is inequality even within the Scheduled Castes. The Scheduled Castes are not a homogeneous integrated class”.

Justice Bela M Trivedi was the lone dissenter who, in her verdict, said Scheduled Castes constituted a homogeneous class and “cannot be tinkered with by the states”.

It rejected the argument that once enumerated in the Presidential List under Article 341 of the Constitution, the Scheduled Castes constitute a homogeneous class, which is incapable of further subdivision/sub-classification and that any attempt to sub-categorise them would amount to tinkering with the Presidential List, in violation of Article 341 (2) and Article 14 of the Constitution.

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The majority had also backed the exclusion of creamy layer from SCs and Scheduled Tribes.

Justice Gavai, in his concurring judgment, said on August 1 that he is “of the view that the State must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes so as exclude them from the benefit of affirmative action. In my view, only this and this alone can achieve the real equality as enshrined under the Constitution”.

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