A seven-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Tuesday observed that Scheduled Castes cannot be treated as a “homogenous group” for granting reservation as some may have advanced in society while other continue to remain “particularly underprivileged”.
Meanwhile, the Centre assured the court it was “committed” to the reservation policy. The Tamil Nadu government, in its turn, said the reservation policy should evolve with the times or would get “fossilised”.
The Constitution Bench is examining the question whether individual States could identify and sub-classify backward classes within the Scheduled Caste category in order to give them more preference in reservation.
The court said the diverse groups, clubbed together in the Presidential list under Article 341 of the Constitution as “Scheduled Castes”, cannot be treated alike.
“What we have in the Presidential list is various castes, who have suffered humiliation and dehumanisation, put together… Sapera [snake charmer], Bazigar [acrobat], Batwal [watchman]… all with different occupations… The heterogeneity is clear from the Presidential list itself,” senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for a petitioner, highlighted.
The Chief Justice agreed they were heterogeneous in terms of their pre-existing occupations, social status and social indicators of backwardness or development. Over the decades, some of them had advanced while others continued to remain “particularly underprivileged”, Chief Justice Chandrachud noted.
