Scheduled Caste groups to now have sub-categories for reservation

Last week, a seven judge bench of the Supreme Court of India while deciding the appeal in State of Punjab and Ors vs. Davinder Singh and Ors, observed that states can further classify the various groups of persons who fall under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category based on any “reasonable differences” within these groups.

In this Weekly, we explore what this means for those who belong to the SC category. 

Who belongs to the Scheduled Castes?

Article 341 of the Indian Constitution empowers the President to create a list of specific castes, races or tribes, or groups within them, to form the list of Scheduled Castes (SC) in the respective states. People belonging to the SC category are eligible for special reservations in admission to educational institutions and places of employment as a means to promote the educational and economic needs of the people belonging to these categories. 

Why are persons belonging to SC categories provided reservation?

Historically, SC communities have been subjected to social injustice and exploitation, and the reservation in educational institutions and employment opportunities are a means to reverse this injustice. In India, there’s also a law that punishes any form of atrocity or violence against SC communities. 

Reservation arises from the constitutional provisions of Article 14 which promotes equality before the law, Article 15 which protects from any form of discrimination  and Article 16 which guarantees equality in opportunity. Each of these provisions mandate that no citizen can enjoy any special privilege. This puts a positive obligation on the state to ensure those whose circumstances are different from others are not deprived of any legal protections. 

Hence, reservations have become a means to support weaker and backward sections of the society and to enable them to avail of the guarantee of equal opportunities and protections of the law.

What is the current issue?

According to the Constitution, the enlisted caste groups are granted certain rights and reservations in admission to educational institutions and employment opportunities This is in keeping with the principle of ‘equitable opportunities’. However, since the definition of ‘who is considered a scheduled caste’ varies according to the different states, the list of SC groups also vary from state to state. 

Various judgments and studies have also reiterated that there is a difference in the degree of “backwardness” even within various Scheduled Caste categories. Accordingly, the state of Punjab had instituted an Act that conferred special quotas for certain groups within the larger category of SCs enlisted in the state. This created a dispute which was brought before the Supreme Court, focusing on:

• Whether states can further sub-categorise the SC categories;
• Whether the law proposed by the state of Punjab is constitutionally valid?

What did the Supreme Court say?

The Court held that the SC category cannot be seen as a ‘homogenous class’ and that there is ‘inter se backwardness” even within the SC category. The Constitution permits the sub-classification within the overall category of scheduled caste based on any rational distinction to enable adequate representation and fair distribution of benefits within the SC Category. The court deemed the Punjab Act constitutionally valid. 

The Court also observed that the state governments were best placed to implement any required sub-categorisation of reserved categories, based on empirical socio-cultural statistics relevant to them. 

The Court upheld the Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) judgment, which stated that there could be sub-classification between “more backward and backward” within the SC categories to fulfill the constitutional objectives of “substantial equality”.  The current judgment also overturns the 2020 case of  E.V Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh which considered sub-categorisation unconstitutional, leading to ‘reverse discrimination’. 

The Supreme Court also clarified that the judgment does not confer the power to modify the Presidential list of SC on the states. They also cannot include any new caste group or exclude any existing group from the SC category. What it allows the states to do is to apportion the quotas among subgroups of the SC category equitably. 

This also means that any atrocious or cruel act against any person belonging to the SC category continues to be punishable under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, irrespective of the subgroups they may belong to.