Supreme Court on SCs reservation: Although some castes among Scheduled Castes and Tribes have made their own progress, many castes in these categories are still far from the mainstream, so there is an old demand that some seats should be reserved for these castes under reservation. When the matter reached the Supreme Court in 2004, the court refused to divide the reservation between Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. But today, a seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud approved reservation of reserved seats in Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe reservation. The court also stated that this reservation is not against the principle of equality.
A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court gave the decision by a majority of 6:1. Judge Bela Madhurya Trivedi disagreed with the decision. Through this Supreme Court in 2004 E. V. Chinnaiya Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh reversed its own judgment in this case. In this case, the Supreme Court had said that the Scheduled Castes cannot be classified under reservation.
While reading the judgment today, Chief Justice Chandrachud said, “Historical and empirical evidence suggests that the Scheduled Castes are not a homogenous class.”
There is a demand for classification in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes reservations in Maharashtra along with some states across the country. This demand has been aggressively raised by the Matang community. There have been many protests by this community for this. Social activists have repeatedly raised the issue that reservations have benefited some selected castes in that category, but other castes have remained marginalized. How the state government implements the decision of the Supreme Court will be known in the future.
What did the Supreme Court say?
- Classification in reservation should be based on statistics, it should not cause injustice to any community.
- In this case states cannot act on their own accord.
- Justice BR Gavai said that one cannot turn a blind eye to the actual situation.
- There are many castes in the SC and ST community, who have suffered injustice over the years.
- Some castes in SC and ST categories are still not empowered.
- Article 14 allows sub-classification of castes.
