A five-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah and Aniruddha Bose, said it is essential to reconsider the 2004 verdict in the E.V. Chinnaiah case and this matter should be placed before Chief Justice S A Bobde for appropriate direction.
Supreme Court. (Photo: iStock)
Expressing disagreement with its 2004 Constitution Bench verdict which ruled against giving preferential treatment to certain sub-castes within the Scheduled Castes, the Supreme Court on Thursday said this judgment needs to be revisited.
A five-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M.R. Shah and Aniruddha Bose, said it is essential to reconsider the 2004 verdict in the E.V. Chinnaiah case and this matter should be placed before Chief Justice S A Bobde for appropriate direction.
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The court said states should be allowed to provide preferential treatment to the poorest of the poor among SCs and STs and advocated that an authoritative pronouncement was needed with respect to the effect of Constitutional provisions and whether sub-classification is permissible only with respect to the socially and educationally backward classes and not with respect to SCs and STs.
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The bench said it seems the 2004 verdict in the E.V. Chinnaiah case was not correctly decided, therefore it requires a reconsideration.
The 2004 verdict in the E.V. Chinnaiah case was also decided by a five-judge bench. As a result, the matter would now have to go to a larger bench. This will be placed before the Chief Justice to refer it to a bench of seven judges or more.
The current case came up before the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down a state law, which empowered the government to sub-classify SC/STs for grant of quotas.
The state government appealed against the 2010 verdict. The high court had struck down Section 4 (5) of the Punjab Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006 and termed it unconstitutional.
This Act gave first preference to Mazbhi Sikhs and Balmikis castes for SC quota in public services.
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