NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Scheduled Castes are not a homogenous group and governments can sub-classify them to give more weightage in 15% reservation to those who suffered more discrimination among SCs.
The bench of CJI, Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish C Sharma overruled 2004 SC judgment in Chinnaiah case that ruled against sub-classification of Scheduled Castes.
The top court said sub-classification of castes among SCs must be based on degrees of their discrimination and can be done by states through collection of empirical data on their representation in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
The seven judge bench penned six separate opinions, five in favour of the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for the purpose of giving the most backward among SCs a better chance to get benefits of the 15% reservation.
Justice Trivedi authored the lone dissent.
However, the top court clarified that none of the castes categorised as scheduled caste could be completely deprived of quota benefit by a state in the guise of providing reservation to those who are not adequately represented in government jobs and admisions to educational institutions.
The bench of CJI, Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish C Sharma overruled 2004 SC judgment in Chinnaiah case that ruled against sub-classification of Scheduled Castes.
The top court said sub-classification of castes among SCs must be based on degrees of their discrimination and can be done by states through collection of empirical data on their representation in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
The seven judge bench penned six separate opinions, five in favour of the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for the purpose of giving the most backward among SCs a better chance to get benefits of the 15% reservation.
Justice Trivedi authored the lone dissent.
However, the top court clarified that none of the castes categorised as scheduled caste could be completely deprived of quota benefit by a state in the guise of providing reservation to those who are not adequately represented in government jobs and admisions to educational institutions.
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