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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

04/08/24 11:54 AM IST

Sub-Quota classification

In News
  • A seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has ruled that States have the power to sub-divide Scheduled Castes (SC) into groups so that it can give sub-quotas within the quota for Dalits. 
2004 Judgement
  • The Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservation) Ordinance, 1999, and the Act that replaced it created four groups — A, B, C and D — of Scheduled Castes and earmarked varying percentages of reservation for each group.
  • The rationale was that there were differences in the level of advancement among communities under the SC list and that such sub-classification will ensure representation for the weaker castes.
  • The Andhra Pradesh High Court rejected the challenge against the Act.
  • However, in the Supreme Court, a Constitution Bench of five judges held the sub-classification was unconstitutional.
  • The November 2004 judgment in E.V. Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh noted that under Article 341 of the Constitution, the President notifies the list of Scheduled Castes.
  • Once the list is notified, it shall not be modified through another notification, and the only way to include or exclude a community in that list was by an act of Parliament.
  • The Bench then ruled that once enumerated under Article 341, SCs constitute a single homogeneous class, and that State legislatures were not competent to tinker with the list by further classifying them into groups.
The Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006
  • The Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006, provided for 25% reservation for SCs and 12% for backward classes in direct recruitment to services.
  • Half the jobs under the SC quota, the law said, would be given as first preference to Balmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs, if candidates were available.
  • When this was challenged, the Punjab and Haryana High Court cited the judgment in E.V. Chinnaiah to hold that the relevant section on preference to two communities among SCs was unconstitutional.
  • Similarly, in 2006, the High Court also struck down the Haryana government’s notification dividing SC communities into two blocks and earmarking 50% of the SC quota to each block.
  • In 2009, the Tamil Nadu Assembly enacted a law to provide a sub-quota in services and educational institutions for Arunthathiyars, a group of sub-castes considered the weakest among the Scheduled Castes in the State.
  • This was challenged directly in the Supreme Court. In 2020, a Constitution Bench doubted the correctness of the Chinnaiah judgment, noting that the nine-judge Bench in Indra Sawhney (1992) had permitted sub-classification of backward classes. 
Creamy layer Exclusion
  • The creamy layer concept is now applicable only to OBCs and so far has not been extended to Dalit communities. Justice B. R. Gavai, in a separate opinion in which he concurs with the Chief Justice, has written in detail about the need for identifying the more advanced among the Scheduled Castes and excluding them from the benefits of affirmative action.
  • Noting that equality would mean that unequals cannot be treated as equals, Justice Gavai has wondered whether the children of IAS or IPS officers could be treated the same way as children in remote villages even though they may belong to the same community.
  • Underscoring the differences in access and resources to those in urban and rural areas, and those attending elite institutions and those in schools with limited facilities, he has said putting them in the same bracket would obliviate the equality principle.
  • However, he also notes that the parameters for excluding the creamy layer for the SCs cannot be the same as those used to identify the well-off among the OBCs.
  • Three other judges have agreed with his view. However, the opinions do not constitute a direction to the government to implement the creamy layer concept, as the issue did not directly arise in this case.
Source- The Hindu

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