Friday, February 14th, 2025

Article: What is the future of sub-quota in reservation


Author: Sudhanshu Ranjan
In the case of Devendra Singh vs Punjab, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court recently ruled with a majority of 6:1 that state governments can create sub-classes among scheduled castes and tribes. That is, categories can be created within Dalits and tribals by examining how much representation each caste has received so that only certain castes do not continue to benefit from reservation. Also, four judges in concurring but separate judgments also pointed out the need to identify the creamy layer.

Opposition to the decision
Many parties have opposed this decision. Prakash Ambedkar has strongly criticized it, while Chirag Paswan said that his/her party will file a review petition against it. Mayawati demanded to overturn this decision by amending the Constitution, while Mallikarjun Kharge has alleged that the government’s intention is to end reservation, otherwise it could have brought a bill to overturn it in the last session itself.

what is the matter
First let us understand what the issue is. Dalit castes have been victims of untouchability. Therefore they were placed in the category of scheduled castes. After the implementation of the Constitution in 1950, reservation has been continuously being provided to them. From time to time, there was a controversy that only some specific castes among Dalits and tribals were getting a large share of this reservation.

quota sub quota supreme court

No caste was excluded
In the 1960s, the Lokur Committee suggested that the status of the cobbler has improved a lot, so they should be excluded from the scope of reservation. But till date, no caste has been excluded from the scope of reservation. At the same time, new castes have been added to the reservation list.

Chinnaiya case
This issue also arose before the apex court. In the case of E V Chinnaiya vs Andhra Pradesh, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the court unanimously ruled that sub-classification within Dalits is not justified.

what happened in punjab
Earlier in 1975, the Punjab government issued a notification and divided the Dalit reservation into two parts. Half for Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikhs and the other half for everyone else. But on 25 July 2006, the Punjab and Haryana High Court cancelled this notification in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Chinnaiya case. Then the Punjab government made the Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006. In this, preference was given to Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikhs, but on 29 March 2010, the High Court cancelled this too.

The case went to the top court
The Punjab government had argued that Chinnaiya’s decision was inconsistent with the 1992 Indra Sawhney case, a 11-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which had called for classification among other backward classes. The matter eventually came up before the apex court. There were two issues: whether sub-classification could be made within the SCs and STs as is done for socially and educationally backward classes; and whether the state government could do so?

Court decision
The court said that this can be done and state governments have the right to do so. The Chinnaiya decision has been questioned several times before. For example, the caste census in Bihar found that there is a lot of disparity among Dalits. Among Dhobis, 124 per 10,000 population have higher education while among Dusadhs this number is 45 (per 10,000). In Tamil Nadu too, Arunthathiyars constitute 16 percent of the total Dalit population, but their share in government jobs is only half a percent.

Opinion of Justice Gavai
Well, in a recent judgment, the Supreme Court said that there is a need to show sensitivity towards the most backward among Dalits. Therefore, classification is necessary, but it should be logical. Justice BR Gavai (who is himself a Dalit) wrote that treating the child of a bureaucrat and the child of a daily wage laborer as equal, even if both are Dalits, would be against the intent of the Constitution.

Government’s stance
Four judges ruled that the creamy layer principle applies to Dalits as well. Justice Gavai and Justice Mittal said that giving reservation benefits to IAS-IPS children is injustice to others. There are four different but unanimous decisions on this issue that the creamy layer principle should be applied. That is, four out of six judges are in agreement. Here the principle of majority will apply. Now it remains to be seen what the government does on this. By the way, the Prime Minister assured a delegation of Dalit and tribal MPs of NDA that there will be no tampering with the current system.

Problems in the creamy layer
There are some practical difficulties in implementing the creamy layer principle. The income limit fixed for OBC is the income of the parents, not the income of the candidate. Now there are examples where someone is earning lakhs of rupees every month from rent alone. he/she transferred all his/her property to his/her children and his/her children became entitled to reservation.

The case of Bihar
The decision of the apex court is welcome. In Bihar, the Karpuri Thakur government had made a provision of 26 percent reservation for backward classes in 1978. This includes 12 percent for extremely backward classes, 8 percent for backward classes, 3 percent for women and 3 percent for economically backward classes. Therefore, it is possible to do this and should be done. But political parties take any step after considering their profit and loss.

(The author is a senior TV journalist and legal expert)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own



Share on:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *