Govt backs subclassification within SC/ST quota, SC told

The Centre on Wednesday told a seven-judge bench in the Supreme Court that it is committed to the policy of reservation for marginalised communities as a measure of affirmative action even as it favours subclassification within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ STs) to ensure the "trickle-down effect" of quota benefits.

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Arguing before the Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, the Centre backed the idea of earmarking most backward categories within SC/STs to enable the states to frame appropriate policies on subclassification and rationalisation of reserved seats.

As the bench, which also included justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma, heard a clutch of petitions on the permissibility of subclassification within the SC/ST reservation on the second consecutive day, the Centre made it clear that its arguments on subclassification must not be construed as an opposition to quota benefits for the marginalised communities.

"These submissions are limited only to the question referred to this Hon'ble Bench i.e.permissibility of subclassification and may not be treated as any dilution of the reservation policy of the central government and the government continues to subscribe to its obligations of granting reservation as a means of achieving equality by such affirmative actions," solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said.

His submissions added that reservation was a measure of affirmative action to bring equality to those who have suffered hundreds of years of discrimination. The Centre's statement in the top court came on a day when Prime Minis-

ter Narendra Modi, while speaking in Parliament, accused India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru of opposing reservation for SC/ST and OBCs in government jobs. Addressing the Rajya Sabha, Modi read out a letter by Nehru to chief ministers in which the late Congress leader suggested that quota in public jobs could lead to inefficiency.