Last Updated on 02/08/2024 by wccexam Desk
The Supreme Court on Thursday approved the provision of quota in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category. The seven-member Constitution Bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud gave the verdict with a majority of 6:1. The court said that new sub-categories can be created within the SC-ST category and separate reservation can be given to the most backward sections in this category. That is, now the state governments will have the right to decide the quota on the basis of backwardness of castes from the quota reserved for the communities included in the SC-ST category. Meanwhile, during the hearing, Justice Pankaj Mithal also mentioned the letter of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, which was written in 1961. Know what Pandit Nehru had written in that letter?
The seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court comprised CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Mishra, Justice BR Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Pankaj Mithal, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Bela M Trivedi. However, Justice Trivedi disagreed with the decision and said, the list of SC-ST category notified under Article 341 cannot be changed by the state government. Changing the sub-category would be like tampering with this list.
SC judge cited Nehru’s 1961 letter
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Supreme Court Justice Pankaj Mithal advocated a fresh look at the reservation policy and referred to a 1961 letter by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In this letter, Pandit Nehru had expressed grief over the tendency to give reservation and privileges to any caste or group.
‘Help needed on financial basis’
Justice Mithal said, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had written a letter to the Chief Ministers of all the states on June 27, 1961. In this letter, expressing grief over the tendency to give reservation and privileges to any caste or group, he had said that such practice should be abandoned and emphasis should be laid on helping citizens not on the basis of caste, but on economic basis. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are entitled to help, but not in the form of any kind of reservation, especially in services.
‘The right way to help the backward is to give them good education’
Nehru further wrote in the letter, I want my country to be a first class country in everything. The moment we encourage second class we are lost. The only real way to help a backward group is to provide opportunities for good education, including technical education, which is becoming more and more important. Everything else is the provision of crutches of one sort or another, which add nothing to the strength or health of the body.
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday said states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classification within the Scheduled Castes, which constitute a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation to uplift the socially and educationally more backward castes.
Justice Mithal agreed with the bench’s decision and said, the history of reservation in the country shows that all three organs of the state have made tremendous efforts to bring social justice by promoting the reservation policy. He said, it is a matter of experience that every kind of process of selection and appointment in government services and entry at higher levels has been challenged before the courts on the ground of misuse of the reservation rule among other things.
Justice Pankaj Mithal said that in most cases, appointments and admissions remain stuck for years due to litigation, causing huge delays in the recruitment process and vacancies remain unfilled for a long time, leading to stop-gap/ad hoc appointments.
He said, “A lot of time and energy has been spent by all the three organs of the state in streamlining the process of reservation and developing a flawless system. It is a matter of record that the peace of the entire country was sometimes disrupted in pro-reservation and anti-reservation movements. Particularly during the anti-Mandal Commission movement in 1990, large scale disturbances were witnessed in most of the states. The disturbances caused by such movements and demonstrations, especially in the months of August-November of 1990, are a sufficient indication of widespread violence.”
He said that the government made caste upliftment the basis of identification instead of identifying on the basis of occupation or social and economic conditions. This is why today we are struggling with the situation of sub-categories of scheduled castes for the purpose of reservation. Experience shows that the better-off sections among the backward classes eat up most of the reserved vacancies/seats. The most backward classes get nothing.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)