SC/ST quota in Houses must continue: Centre

The reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures must continue, the Centre told a Constitution bench of Supreme Court on Wednesday, defending the validity of a 2019 constitutional amendment that extended quotas for the two communities by another 10 years.

- Utkarsh Anand

TOP COURT TOLD

"We will place materials on record to strengthen the case that reservation can go on," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud. The Centre's emphatic statement in favour of continuing with reservation for SCs and STS came a day after the Narendra Modi government's decision to table a new constitutional amendment bill in the Lok Sabha to reserve "as nearly as may be", one-third of seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures across the country. The proposed amendment also provided that one-third of the total seats reserved for SCs and STs shall be reserved for women of those categories in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.