States can sub-classify SCs, STs for quota: Supreme Court

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 1
Holding that the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) were not homogenous groups, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that states could sub-classify the SCs and the STs to ensure greater reservation for some SC/ST groups over others in public employment and admission to government-run educational institutions.
“Article 14 of the Constitution permits sub-classification of a class, which is not similarly situated for the purpose of the law. The court, while testing the validity of sub-classification, must determine whether the class is a homogenous integrated class for fulfilling the objective of the sub-classification. If the class is not integrated for the purpose, it can be further classified upon the fulfilment of the two-pronged intelligible differentia standard,” a seven-judge Constitution Bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud, said in the landmark judgment.
By a 6:1 majority, the Bench, however, said such sub-classification could not be based on the whims of governments.
“The objective of any form of affirmative action, including sub-classification, is to provide substantive equality of opportunity to the Backward Classes. A state can sub-classify, inter alia, based on inadequate representation of certain castes. However, the state must establish that the inadequacy of representation of a caste/group is because of its backwardness,” the Bench said.
“The state must collect data on the inadequacy of representation in the ‘services of the state’ because it is used as an indicator of backwardness,” it added.
The Bench said, “While the state may embark on an exercise of sub-classification, it must do so on the basis of quantifiable and demonstrable data bearing on levels of backwardness and representation in the services of the state. It cannot in other words merely act on its whims or as a matter of political expediency.
However, the top court clarified that while providing for sub-classification, the state would not be entitled to reserve 100 per cent seats available for the SCs in favour of a sub-class to the exclusion of other castes in the list in public employment and admissions to educational institutions.

Not on govt’s whims
By a 6:1 majority, a Constitution Bench, however, said such sub-classification could not be based on the whims of governments.